RELIGION  IN  A 
WORLD  AT  WAR 


GEORGE   HODGES 


tihtavy  of CKc  'theological  ^^minavy 

PRINCETON    .   NEW  JERSEY 
PRESENTED  BY 

Dr.  Earl  A.  Pope 

Manson  Professor  of  Bible 

Lafayette  College 

The  Earl  A.  Pope  Collection 


115. ¥2  H7  1917 
„ dges ,  George ,  1856-1919. 
-..igion  in  a.  world  a.t  wa.r. 


cL  ^^^t^    Cc. 


RELIGION 
IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 


^Th^)^o 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NBW  YORK  •   BOSTON  •   CHICAGO  -   DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •   BOMBAY  •   CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


RELIGION 
IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 


BY 

GEORGE  HODGES 

Dean  of  the  Episcopal  Theological  School 
Cambridge,  Massachusetts 


^Rt  OF  PRINCE^ 
SEP     6    2000 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1918 

All  rights  reserve^ 


Copyright,  1917, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published,  May,  1917. 


CONTENTS 

In  the  Storm  of  War  .      .      .      .1     .      .      .  i 

Easter  in  a  World  at  War 13 

Memorial  Day  in  a  World  at  War         .      .  23 

All  Saints'  Day  in  a  World  at  War       .      .  35 

Christmas  in  a  World  at  War    ....  49 

God  and  the  World's  Pain     .....  59 

Pain  and  the  World's  Progress       ...  74 

The  Everlasting  Vitality  of  the  Christian 

Religion         .     .     .) 89 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD 
AT  WAR 

IN  THE  STORM  OF  WAR 

Blessed  be  the  Lord  my  strength  which  teacheth 
my  hands  to  war  and  my  fingers  to  fight.  Psalm 
144:1. 

CHE  Old  Testament  is  filled  with  the 
alarm  of  war.  Its  books  of  history 
are  occupied  with  accounts  of  campaigns, 
successful  and  unsuccessful.  Its  books  of 
prophecy  are  composed  of  the  sermons 
which  men  preached  who  took  their  texts 
from  the  bulletins  of  Assyrian  and  Chaldean 
invasion,  from  the  plots  of  Egyptian  con- 
spirators, from  the  tragedies  of  deportation. 
When  Ulfilas,  the  apostle  of  the  Goths, 
translated  the  Bible  into  the  language  of 
his  people,  he  omitted  the  books  of  Samuel 
and  Kings,  because  there  is  so  much  fight- 
ing in  them.  He  feared  that  his  belligerent 
countrymen  would  find  these  books  more 
interesting  than  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 
But  even  in  an  Old  Testament  thus  pru- 

I 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

dently  expurgated,  there  is  plenty  of  war 
left. 

The  modern  Hebrew  is  for  the  most  part 
a  peaceable  person;  sometimes  suffering 
at  the  hands  of  semi-barbarous  Christian 
neighbours,  but  rarely  retaliating.  The  an- 
cient Hebrew  was  a  fierce  and  eager  soldier. 
With  his  sword  and  with  his  bow  he  had 
won  the  land  which  he  inhabited,  and  he 
had  defended  his  possession  in  a  thousand 
battles.  According  to  his  theology,  the 
Lord  himself  was  a  man  of  war.  The  saints 
in  his  calendar  wore  helmets  instead  of  ha- 
loes, and  showed  that  the  grace  of  God  was 
in  them  by  the  might  with  which  they  smote 
their  enemies.  Saint  Abraham  took  the 
three  hundred  and  eighteen  men  who  com- 
posed his  body-guard  and  fell  upon  the  hosts 
of  the  allied  kings  of  the  east.  Saint  Moses, 
meekest  of  men,  began  his  career  of  social 
reconstruction  by  killing  an  Egyptian  over- 
seer. Saint  Samuel,  though  properly  a 
prophet  rather  than  a  warrior,  hewed  King 
Agag  in  pieces  before  the  Lord,  and  wiped 
his  bloody  axe  confident  that  in  him  God 
was  well  pleased.  The  time  would  fail  me, 
says  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 


IN  THE  STORM  OF  WAR 

brews,  to  tell  of  Gideon,  and  of  Barak,  and 
of  Samson,  and  of  Jephthah, —  saints  and 
heroes  all, —  who  waxed  valiant  in  fight, 
and  turned  to  flight  the  armies  of  the  aliens. 

Those  were  days  when  hatred  was  held 
high  among  the  manly  virtues.  "  Do  not  I 
hate  them,  O  Lord,  that  hate  thee?  "  cries 
the  writer  of  a  psalm.  "  I  hate  them  with 
a  perfect  hatred:  I  count  them  mine  ene- 
mies." And  then,  without  the  slightest 
pause  or  hesitation,  he  continues,  "  Search 
me,  O  God,  and  know  my  heart,  try  me  and 
know  my  thoughts,  and  see  if  there  be  any 
wickedness  in  me,  and  lead  .me  in  the  way 
everlasting."  There  may  be  some  wicked- 
ness in  him,  but  he  thinks  not.  His  con- 
science is  quite  clear.  That  his  hatred  of 
his  enemies  might  possibly  be  considered  a 
defect  in  his  character  never  enters  for  a 
moment  into  his  mind.  By  the  stoutness  of 
his  hatred  he  commends  himself  to  the  ap- 
proval of  God.  He  is  proud  of  the  perfection 
of  his  wrath. 

As  for  war,  it  was  commonly  considered  a 
normal  part  of  every  well-ordered  masculine 
life.  Sometimes,  in  the  depression  of  discour- 
agement   and    defeat    long    continued,    a 

3 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

prophet  might  have  a  vision  of  a  blessed 
peace  when  swords  should  be  beaten  into 
plough-shares,  and  spears  into  pruning- 
hooks.  This,  however,  was  but  a  passing  vi- 
sion, and  seemed  on  reflection  a  dull  dream. 
The  natural  occupation  of  a  man  in  ordinary 
health  was  to  fight.  "  It  came  to  pass,"  says 
an  Old  Testament  historian,  by  way  of  cas- 
ually dating  an  event,  "  it  came  to  pass  at  the 
time  when  kings  go  forth  to  battle."  The 
winter  is  over,  the  sweet  spring  awakens  new 
life  in  the  brown  fields,  the  hearts  of  men 
beat  faster  in  tune  with  the  universe,  and  re- 
joicing kings  lead  their  happy  warriors  forth 
with  merry  shouting.  What  can  we  do  bet- 
ter, these  fine  fresh  mornings,  than  to  kill  one 
another?  The  cause?  They  ask  no  cause.  Is 
the  war  offensive  or  defensive?  It  matters 
not  to  them.  Do  they  fight  for  principle,  or 
for  plunder?  They  do  not  greatly  care; 
though  they  probably  prefer  plunder.  They 
go  to  war  for  war's  sake. 

A  theory  of  the  Bible  which  put  the  Old 
Testament  on  a  level  with  the  New  found 
precedent  in  these  old  battles  and  sanction  in 
the  fierce  old  psalms.  Saint  Bernard  took  the 
first  verse  of  the  One  Hundred  and  forty- 
4 


IN  THE  STORM  OF  WAR 

fourth  Psalm,  and  made  it  the  war-cry  of  the 
Crusades.  The  Christian  knights  rode  into 
battle,  singing  as  they  couched  their  lances, 
"  Blessed  be  the  Lord  my  strength,  which 
teacheth  my  hands  to  war  and  my  fingers  to 
fight."  Cromwell  led  his  cavalry  against  the 
fortress  of  Drogheda  with  the  watch-word, 
"  Our  Lord  God,"  and  said  at  the  end  of  a 
massacre,  whose  fearful  echoes  ring  in  Ire- 
land to  this  hour,  "  It  hath  pleased  God  to 
bless  our  endeavours."  The  English  lost  a 
hundred  men  that  day;  the  Irish  lost  three 
thousand.  But  there  was  a  similar  dispro- 
portion at  the  taking  of  Jericho.  There  were 
texts  of  Scripture  to  justify  it.  "  It  was  set 
upon  some  of  our  hearts,"  said  Cromwell, 
"  that  a  great  thing  should  be  done,  not  by 
power  or  by  might,  but  by  the  Spirit  of  God." 
Cromwell  was  entirely  honest  about  it.  He 
could  have  said  in  his  prayers  that  night,  like 
the  man  in  the  psalm,  *'  Search  me,  O  God, 
and  know  my  heart,  and  see  if  there  be  any 
wickedness  in  me."  The  doctrine  of  the  in- 
spiration of  Scripture  may  seem  somewhat 
removed  from  the  practical  side  of  human 
life,  but  that  day  in  Ireland  a  doctrine  of  the 
inspiration  of  the  Old  Testament  encouraged 

5 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

an  army  of  psalm-singing  and  praying  sol- 
diers to  butcher  a  defenceless  garrison. 

Of  course,  the  truth  is  that  the  Bible  is  a 
record  of  moral  progress.  Little  by  little, 
century  by  century,  through  experiences  in- 
structive but  often  terrible,  the  race  comes  on 
into  better  knowledge  of  God  and  of  man. 
When  the  invading  army  of  the  Germans  re- 
peated in  Belgium  the  methods  of  the  invad- 
ing army  of  the  Israelites  in  Canaan,  they 
had  the  Old  Testament  on  their  side.  But 
the  Christian  world  was  horrified.  In  the 
midst  of  all  the  manifold  confusions,  misun- 
derstandings and  perplexities  of  the  war,  the 
invasion  of  Belgium  stands  out  as  one  plain 
count  in  our  indictment  of  Germany,  one 
vast  and  hideous  crime  which  has  not  been 
denied,  and  for  which  there  has  been  no 
repentance.  We  go  to  war  with  Germany  in 
defence  and  protest  against  a  manner  of 
fighting  which  defies  the  ideals  of  humanity. 
But  it  did  not  defy  the  ideals  of  humanity  in 
the  time  of  the  Old  Testament.  Our  state  of 
mind  shows  the  progress  which  has  been 
made,  in  most  nations,  since  that  day. 

It  is  true  that  history  contains  the  record 
of  just  and  necessary  wars.  Out  of  a  hundred 
6 


IN  THE  STORM  OF  WAR 

thousand  pages  stained  with  folly,  and  ambi- 
tion, and  tragic  error,  and  the  passions  of 
wild  beasts,  and  exhibiting  war  as  the  blind 
enemy  of  mankind,  the  destroyer  of  art  and 
industry,  the  wanton  hinderer  of  the  prog- 
ress of  the  race,  there  are  chapters  which 
shine  with  the  splendour  of  heroism  and 
martyrdom,  and  with  the  glory  of  perma- 
nent achievement.  There  are  wars  which 
have  won  decisive  victories  for  humanity, 
for  truth,  for  liberty. 

Leonidas  at  Thermopylae,  meeting  the 
hosts  of  the  East  at  the  threshold  of  their  in- 
vasion of  the  West,  as  Horatius  kept  the 
bridge  at  Rome,  was  engaged  in  an  undertak- 
ing for  which  no  other  implements  than  arms 
were  competent.  No  priest  of  Corinth  with 
his  prayers,  no  philosopher  of  Athens  with 
his  arguments,  could  have  held  back  that 
devastating  host.  Charles  Martel,  confront- 
ing the  Saracens  at  Tours,  was  engaged  in  a 
business  which  neither  courts  nor  churches 
could  accomplish.  Somebody  had  to  fight 
that  advancing  army.  It  was  the  only  way. 
The  destiny  of  Christianity  and  of  civilisa- 
tion depended  on  the  energies  of  war. 

In  like  manner  in  this  country,  our  fathers 

7 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

fought  for  liberty  and  unity.  They  had  to 
fight.  They  went  into  battle  with  as  clear  a 
conscience,  and  upheld  by  as  confident  a  con- 
viction of  the  approval  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts, 
as  any  warrior  of  the  Old  Testament,  or  as 
any  martyr  of  the  New.  Thus  fought  the 
men  of  the  War  of  Independence;  and  the 
men  of  the  North  when  they  met  the  men  of 
the  South.  These  soldiers  went  to  war  not 
to  satisfy  the  ambition  of  anybody  in  au- 
thority, nor  for  the  sake  of  the  conquest 
of  territory,  nor  to  try  out  the  value  of  the 
inventions  of  manufacturers  of  munitions, 
nor  for  any  merely  material  interests;  still 
less  did  they  fight  for  the  sake  of  fighting. 
They  were  of  the  mind  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney 
when  he  said,  "  Whenever  you  hear  of  a  good 
war,  go  to  it."  It  was  a  good  war,  and  they 
went  to  it  on  that  account. 

The  determining  question  which  a  Chris- 
tian nation  asks  on  the  eve  of  war  has  regard 
not  to  the  excellence  of  peace  —  which  may 
well  be  debated  in  the  time  of  peace  —  but  to 
the  character  of  the  impending  war.  Is  it  a 
good  war?  Is  the  quarrel  great  enough,  and 
irreconcilable  enough?  Is  it  so  serious  and 
urgent  beyond  all  doubt  as  to  justify  the  kill- 
8 


IN  THE  STORM  OF  WAR 

ing  of  a  hundred  thousand  men?  Is  it  the 
kind  of  crisis  which,  arising  between  intelli- 
gent neighbours  on  our  street,  would  require 
one  neighbour,  on  behalf  of  the  eternal  prin- 
ciples of  right  and  justice  and  humanity,  to 
bum  the  other  neighbour's  house,  and  shoot 
his  wife  and  children? 

If  we  say  Yes,  the  quarrel  is  sufficiently 
great,  the  disagreement  demands  settlement 
and  cannot  wait ;  still  the  question  remains. 
Have  all  the  civilised  methods  of  settlement 
been  tried?  Have  all  the  substitutes  of  law 
for  war  been  put  into  effect? 

For  the  event  of  war  contradicts  in  a  mo- 
ment the  whole  progress  of  civilisation.  It 
declares  that  that  for  which  the  church 
stands,  and  that  for  which  the  college  stands, 
and  that  that  is  represented  by  the  courts  of 
law,  is  of  no  avail. 

By  long  labour,  by  hard  experience,  by 
patient  thought,  by  the  endeavours  of  the 
best  men,  the  race  comes  on  slowly  and  pain- 
fully out  of  savagery  into  civilisation.  The 
church  is  occupied  in  teaching  the  brother- 
hood of  man,  and  in  softening  the  natural 
brutalities  of  men;  the  college  is  engaged  in 
getting  the  world  administered  according  to 

9 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

the  processes  o£  reason,  as  opposed  to  the 
methods  of  physical  force ;  the  court  is  con- 
cerned to  extend  and  maintain  the  peace 
which  comes  by  the  just  and  orderly  settle- 
ment of  disputes.  Between  them,  they  have 
almost  abolished  private  war.  It  is  true  that 
they  have  not  yet  succeeded  completely.  But 
they  have  done  much.  They  have  brought  it 
about  that  a  man's  house  need  no  longer  be 
his  fortress,  and  that  a  man  need  no  longer 
protect  himself  against  injustice  by  attacking 
his  neighbour  with  a  gun.  When  that  sort  of 
thing  happens,  as  it  does  happen  still  in  the 
less-privileged  districts  of  great  cities,  we 
perceive  the  last  dregs  of  a  cup  of  strife 
which  was  once  full  to  the  brim.  The  church, 
the  college  and  the  court  have  brought  about 
the  dominion  of  religion,  of  reason,  and  of 
law  over  the  affairs  of  individuals. 

They  have  not  accomplished  this  civilising 
process  in  the  affairs  of  nations.  In  spite  of 
all  this  progress,  suddenly  comes  war,'  and 
men  revert  to  barbarism.  The  nations  act  as 
if  neither  court,  nor  college,  nor  church  ex- 
isted. Each  nation  undertakes  to  settle  its 
difference  with  a  neighbour  nation  in  the 
ancient  manner  which  antedates  all  civilis- 

10 


IN  THE  STORM  OF  WAR 

ation.  Thus  they  did  beside  the  Tigris  and 
the  Euphrates  before  Babylon  was  born,  and 
in  the  valley  of  the  Nile  before  the  oldest 
pyramid  was  built.  Thus  the  lions  and  the 
bears  administer  justice  in  the  jungle. 

The  sound  of  trumpets  fills  the  land  with 
primitive  emotions;  the  drums  beat  and 
crowds  gather  in  the  public  places ;  men  are 
impatient  to  march  into  the  flame  and  thun- 
der. They  would  go  singing  like  the  crusa- 
ders, "  Blessed  be  the  Lord  my  strength, 
which  teacheth  my  hands  to  war,  and  my  fin- 
gers to  fight."  But  the  everlasting  truth  is 
that  the  Lord  intends  our  hands  to  war  and 
our  fingers  to  fight  not  only  when  our  cause 
is  just,  but  when  all  other  plans  and  endeav- 
ours have  plainly  failed,  and  the  only  way  in 
which  we  can  persuade  our  brothers  is  by 
the  argument  which  Cain  used  with  Abel. 

Up  to  the  moment  when  that  condition  is 
made  plain  beyond  mistake,  a  Christian  na- 
tion will  maintain  a  patience  proportioned 
to  the  solemn  and  tremendous  importance  of 
the  event.  It  will  preserve  a  patience  which 
shall  stir  up  in  the  souls  of  irresponsible  peo- 
ple a  very  storm  of  abusive  indignation, — 
and  will  still  be  patient.  It  will  wait,  not  till 

II 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

there  is  an  excuse  for  making  war,  nor  till 
some  act  is  committed  which  seems  to  call 
for  the  reply  of  war,  but  till  the  situation  is 
such  that  it  is  plain  that  no  processes  of  peace 
can  solve  it.  For  war  means  that  your  son 
kills  your  neighbour's  son,  and  is  brought 
back  to  you  shot  through  the  head.  We  shall 
never  confront  the  situation  fairly,  so  long  as 
we  state  it  to  ourselves  in  terms  of  other  peo- 
ple's sons.  It  is  by  our  own  relation  to  it  that 
we  must  fortify  our  utmost  patience. 

Then,  when  the  last  walls  of  our  Christian 
patience  are  beaten  down,  and  we  come  to 
the  pass  of  which  our  Master  spoke  when  he 
said,  "  I  came  not  to  send  peace  but  a 
sword  " ;  when  there  must  be  war  for  the  de- 
fence of  our  liberties,  for  the  protection  of 
our  homes,  or  for  the  punishment  of  intoler- 
able crimes  against  God  and  man ;  God  give 
us  grace  to  meet  it  with  courage  and  a 
clear  conscience.  Blessed  be  the  Lord  my 
strength,  who  taught  men's  hands  to  war 
and  their  fingers  to  fight,  in  the  old  time 
when  that  was  the  only  way.  And  blessed  be 
the  Lord  of  Hosts  who  on  a  thousand  battle- 
fields has  defended  the  right  against  the 
mighty ;  and  shall  again  defend  it. 

12 


EASTER  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

^T^HEN  our  Lord  said,  "  The  Son  of  Man 
vAx  shall  be  betrayed  unto  the  chief 
priests  and  unto  the  scribes,  and  they  shall 
condemn  him  to  death,  and  shall  deliver  him 
to  the  Gentiles  to  mock  and  to  scourge  and 
to  crucify  him, —  and  the  third  day  he  shall 
rise  again,"  he  included  Good  Friday  and 
Easter  in  the  same  sentence. 

It  is  the  divine  succession:  after  tragedy, 
victory ;  after  death,  the  resurrection ;  hope- 
less failure,  everything  lost,  all  the  good 
plans  of  God  gone  wrong,  the  devil  dom- 
inant, the  Son  of  Man  betrayed,  delivered  to 
the  Gentiles,  mocked,  scourged  and  cruci- 
fied,—  then  the  third  day.  It  is  as  he  said  in 
another  place,  "  In  the  world  ye  shall  have 
tribulation,  but  be  of  good  cheer,  I  have 
overcome  the  world." 

In  the  conviction  that  the  best  prophecy 
is  history,  we  consult  the  Old  Testam.ent. 
We  perceive  that  a  great  part  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament was  written  under  Good-Friday  con- 

13 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

«■ 
ditions.  The  nation  was  delivered  over  into 

the  hands  of  its  enemies,  and  was  mocked 
and  scourged  and  crucified.  The  situation 
was  Uke  that  of  Belgium,  of  Poland,  of  Ser- 
bia, of  Armenia.  The  righteous  were  beaten 
down,  and  trodden  under  foot,  and  "  killed 
all  the  day  long."  Most  of  the  prophets 
preached  under  such  circumstances.  Some 
of  them  saw  the  evil  afar  off,  and  hoped  that 
it  might  be  averted;  some  of  them,  in  the 
midst  of  the  evil  days,  saw  the  dim  light  of  a 
distant  dawn.  But  there  they  were,  in  a 
world  at  war,  as  we  are. 

So  with  the  men  who  wrote  the  Psalms. 
See  how  many  of  these  poems  are  in  the 
minor  key.  They  are  full  of  pain  and  per- 
plexity. They  express  the  amazement  of  the 
faithful  at  the  prosperity  of  the  wicked,  and 
at  the  consequent  defeat  and  affliction  of  the 
righteous.  They  were  written  by  men  who 
beside  the  waters  of  Babylon  wept  when  they 
remembered  Zion.  As  we  read  them,  we  per- 
ceive how  perfectly  they  express  the  feelings 
of  our  brethren  in  the  devastation  of  the  Ger- 
man War. 

Yet  the  Psalter  ends  with  the  great  praise 
of  the  last  psalm ;  and  the  poem  of  the  pas- 
M 


EASTER  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

sion,  which  begins  in  the  deepest  depths  with 
the  cry,  "  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou 
forsaken  me?"  comes  out  into  the  shining 
light  of  faith  and  satisfaction.  It  begins  with 
Good  Friday,  but  it  ends  with  Easter.  The 
sequence  is  so  remarkable  in  the  prophets  as 
to  give  rise  to  the  theory  that  sentences  of 
promise  and  consolation  and  victory  were 
added  to  the  books  by  later  writers.  Even  if 
this  were  true,  it  would  mean  that  later 
writers  saw  that  the  universal  gloom  of  the 
prophets  was  a  misinterpretation  of  the 
course  of  the  world.  Probably  the  prophets 
saw  that  themselves. 

Anyhow,  here  is  the  fact :  most  of  the  Old 
Testament  was  written  in  a  world  at  war, 
and  yet  the  dominant  note  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment is  the  note  of  victory.  The  men  of  that 
tragic  time,  living  as  we  do  in  the  face  of  the 
strife  of  nations,  themselves  actually  in  the 
midst  of  it,  daily  suffering  under  the  horrible 
distress  of  it,  nevertheless  maintained  the 
serenity  of  their  faith.  They  held  that  doc- 
trine of  the  gracious  and  loving  providence 
of  God  which  in  all  ages  has  triumphantly 
withstood  the  contradiction  of  the  facts.  In 
a  thousand  wars,  as  in  individual  experiences 

15 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

out  of  number,  the  facts  are  dead  against  the 
assertion  of  divine  providence.  The  proposi- 
tion that  God  is  our  Father  is  disproved 
every  day.  But  we  believe  it.  That  is  the  ex- 
traordinary thing.  It  is  a  part  of  the  invin- 
cible creed  of  man,  against  which  all  facts 
and  all  arguments  beat  as  vainly  as  the 
doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  sur- 
vives the  daily  contradiction  of  the  death  of 
the  body. 

Nobody  in  Europe  can  add  anything  to 
the  Old  Testament  consciousness  of  the 
calamity  of  war.  The  Hebrews  learned  the 
whole  terrible  lesson  from  the  Assyrians  and 
the  Chaldeans,  centuries  before  the  Germans 
were  ever  heard  of.  Yet  the  total  result  of 
the  Old  Testament  writings  is  that  by  pa- 
tience and  comfort  of  the  Scriptures  we  may 
have  hope.  Their  message  is  that  after  be- 
trayal, and  mocking,  and  scourging,  and  cru- 
cifixion; after  the  sun  is  turned  into  dark- 
ness, and  the  moon  into  blood,  and  the  stars 
fall;  there  comes  the  sure  dawn  of  a  third 
day,  when  the  Lord  of  Life,  whom  we 
thought  dead,  rises  again. 

There  is  a  serious  defect,  however,  in  the 
Old  Testament  hope  and  comfort.  It  is  a 
i6 


EASTER  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

message  to  the  nations  rather  than  to  the 
men  and  women  of  whom  the  nations  are 
composed.  It  is  an  interpretation  of  life  in 
terms  of  continents  and  centuries.  The 
"  third  day ''  is  Hke  the  days  of  creation  in  the 
book  of  Genesis.  It  is  so  long,  and  the  first 
day  and  the  second  are  so  long  in  between, 
that  we  despair  of  seeing  it.  It  will  come, 
no  doubt,  and  this  will  be  a  better  world  in 
consequence  of  all  this  pain ;  but  we  shall  not 
be  here  to  welcome  it.  It  is  as  when  the  Lord 
said  to  Mary  in  her  mourning,  "  Thy  brother 
shall  rise  again  " ;  and  Mary  replied,  "  Yes, 
Lord,  I  know  that  he  shall  rise, —  in  the 
resurrection  at  the  last  day."  That  was  a 
cold  and  remote  comfort :  as  when  one  says, 
"  It  will  be  all  the  same  in  a  hundred  years." 
The  storm  of  war  falls  upon  the  land  and 
sweeps  away  our  home,  our  property,  our 
place  to  live  in,  and  those  who  are  dear  to 
us,  and  leaves  us  impoverished,  spoiled, 
maimed  and  bereft.  They  who  are  thus 
taken  out  of  our  sight  go,  no  doubt,  to  their 
reward.  But  here  are  we;  here  are  our 
brothers  and  sisters  in  the  devastated  lands. 
There  is  no  immediate  consolation  for  them 
in  the  expectation  that  by-and-by,  after  years 

17 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

of  pain  and  labour,  these  ghastly  ruins  shall 
be  built  again  into  decent  habitations,  and 
men  and  women  shall  live  happily  in  them. 
What  is  the  consolation  of  religion  for  these 
afflicted  people  now? 

It  is  where  the  New  Testament  saints 
found  it,  in  an  interpretation  of  life  which 
defied  poverty,  and  persecution  and  the 
sword  and  the  loss  of  all  things,  because  they 
had  transferred  the  emphasis  of  their  inter- 
est from  the  world  to  the  soul.  Their  treas- 
ure was  laid  up  where  no  fire  could  burn  it, 
where  no  thieves  could  steal  it. 

It  is  to  be  said  for  war  that  it  makes  a  dif- 
ference in  the  common  standard  of  value.  It 
distinguishes  sharply  between  that  which  is 
material  and  temporal  and  that  which  is 
eternal.  With  all  its  hideous  brutality,  with 
its  emphasis  on  the  baser  passions,  tempting 
men  to  enrich  themselves  by  means  of  the 
pain  of  their  brethren,  nevertheless  it  re- 
veals among  us  an  unsuspected  prevalence 
of  faith  in  the  things  which  are  above. 

The  men  v/ho  go  into  the  war  leave  their 

business,  which  had  seemed  to  them  the  most 

important  thing  in  life.  They  give  up  the 

pursuit  of  gain,  which  had  been  the  goal  of 

i8 


EASTER  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

their  efforts.  The  current  of  their  ambition 
is  suddenly  turned  into  a  new  channel ;  they 
have  not  only  new  occupations  but  new  mo- 
tives. With  the  abandonment  of  the  com- 
forts of  life,  and  of  the  ordinary  aims  of  life, 
they  are  prepared  to  give  up  life  itself.  And 
this,  with  no  expectation  of  reward.  To  the 
habitual  question  of  commercial  prudence, 
"  What  is  there  in  this  for  me?  "  the  answer 
which  they  make  to  their  souls  is  that  there 
is  nothing  in  it  of  material  advantage  to 
them.  All  that  they  expect,  all  that  they  de- 
sire, is  the  satisfaction  which  comes  to  those 
who  do  their  duty,  and  the  joy  which  is  the 
reward  of  those  who  have  their  part  in  the 
winning  of  a  good  fight.  And  these  are 
things  which  are  above. 

Under  the  easy  conditions  of  a  long  peace, 
such  a  situation  may  seem  incredible.  We 
may  think  ill  of  human  nature.  We  may  be 
of  the  opinion  that  man  is  invincibly  selfish, 
and  cares  only  for  the  comforts  and  conven- 
iences of  life,  and  has  forgotten  the  ideals  of 
his  youth,  and  prefers  gain  to  godliness,  and 
is  incapable  of  self-sacrifice.  We  may  say  to 
the  social  reformer,  "  You  can't  get  men  to 
give  their  money,  or  their  time,  or  even  the 

19 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

use  of  their  influential  names,  to  any  attack 
upon  the  devil;  because  it  would  interfere 
with  their  business.  It  would  interfere  with 
their  sacred  business." 

Then  war  comes,  and  the  doctrine  that 
human  nature  is  invincibly  selfish  is  dis- 
proved  by  the   argument   of   innumerable 
lives.  Under  the  revealing  conditions  of  this 
demand,    unsuspected    heroism,    devotion, 
nobility,   patriotism,   self-sacrifice,   and   re- 
ligion   appear.  Men    are    better    than    we 
thought.  We  ourselves  are  not  so  selfish, 
not  so  committed  to  the  mere  things  of  life, 
as  we  had  feared.  Even  death  takes  on  a  new 
significance  when  it  comes  not  in  ignomini- 
ous slow  surrender  to  disease,  but  as  a  splen- 
did offering  of  all  that  we  have  and  are  for 
the  triumph  of  the  righteous  cause.  The  hero 
gives  himself,  with  open  eyes,  with  rejoicing 
devotion.  He  consecrates  himself  to  the  ser- 
vice of  his  country.  He  meets  death  not  as  an 
accident,  not  as  a  defeat,  but  as  a  part  of  the 
great    day's    work.  "  Gladly    I    lived,    and 
gladly  I  die,  and  I  lay  me  down  with  a  will." 
The  black  storm  of  war  overtakes  us,  and 
we   count  up   our  losses.  They  are  bitter 
losses.  A  great  war  touches  every  family  in 

20 


EASTER  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

the  nation.  There  is  no  shelter  from  it.  Let 
us  not  suffer  ourselves  to  be  deceived  by  the 
enthusiasm  of  thoughtless  people,  or  to  set 
out  gaily  keeping  step  to  the  beat  of  drums. 
Let  us  not  share  in  the  false  security  of  those 
who  say,  as  they  read  the  tragedies  of  other 
people,  "  It  can  never  happen  to  me."  In  this 
v^ar,  we  shall  all  suffer.  There  is  no  escape. 
We  perceive,  however,  that  a  large  part  of 
the  loss  in  war  consists  in  the  destruction  of 
material  things.  And  we  perceive,  further, 
that  most  of  these  things  are  such  as  we  can 
do  without. 

We  learn  again  the  spiritual  philosophy  of 
St.  Paul,  who  not  in  easy  theory  only,  not  in 
a  sermon  only,  but  in  the  actual  experience 
of  his  life,  accounted  all  material  things  as 
no  better  than  refuse,  as  of  no  value  whatso- 
ever, in  comparison  with  the  love  of  Christ. 
Christ,  for  our  sakes,  became  poor,  not  of 
necessity,  neither  reluctantly  nor  regret- 
fully, but  with  a  great  gladness,  as  one  who 
enters  into  a  splendid  independence,  un- 
hampered, free,  who  sees  life  clear  of  all  illu- 
sion, and  puts  first  things  first.  St.  Paul,  and 
all  the  apostles,  all  the  disciples,  followed  his 
example.  "  If  ye  then  be  risen  with  Christ," 

21 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

he  said,  "  seek  those  things  which  are 
above."  It  was  his  Easter  message  to  those 
who  had  suffered  the  loss  of  all  things.  Seek 
those  abiding  things  on  which  the  destruc- 
tive hand  of  adversity,  of  persecution,  or  of 
war  cannot  be  laid.  Though  heaven  and 
earth  pass  away,  these  eternal  things  re- 
main. 

War  or  no  war,  this  is  the  true  way  of  life. 
We  may  not  get  out  from  under  the  burden 
of  our  possessions,  nor  separate  ourselves 
from  our  social  complications,  nor  forsake 
the  world.  We  may  not  seek  the  simple  life 
under  artificial  conditions  of  seclusion.  That 
would  be  the  kind  of  retreat  which  is  the 
same  as  defeat.  We  are  to  live  the  life  to 
which  it  has  pleased  God  to  call  us.  But  we 
are  to  live  it  in  the  spirit  of  the  philosopher  to 
whom  a  fanatic  cried,  "  The  world  is  coming 
to  an  end,"  and  who  answered,  "  I  can  get 
along  very  well  without  it."  There  is  the 
test,  there  is  our  daily  task  of  preparation. 
We  are  so  to  live,  in  the  consciousness  of 
God,  in  the  sight  of  heaven,  that  we  can  get 
along  without  any  of  these  material  things, 
and  survive  the  comforts  and  conveniences 
of  life  with  unperturbed  serenity. 

22 


MEMORIAL  DAY  IN  A  WORLD 
AT  WAR 

Men  that  have  hazarded  their  lives  for  the  name  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Acts  15:26. 

^^^HEY  had  hazarded  their  lives  not  on 
^^  fields  of  battle  but  in  the  dangerous 
adventures  of  peace. 

Saint  Paul,  who  was  of  their  company, 
gives  a  list  of  the  kinds  of  things  which  they 
had  done  and  endured :  "  Five  times  re- 
ceived I  forty  stripes  save  one,  thrice  was  I 
beaten  with  rods,  once  was  I  stoned,  thrice  I 
suffered  shipwreck,  a  night  and  a  day  have  I 
been  in  the  deep."  To  these  perils  of  waters, 
he  added  perils  of  the  wilderness,  of  the  jour- 
ney, and  of  the  city;  and  perils  by  the 
heathen,  by  his  own  countrymen,  and  by 
false  brethren.  He  said  that  he  had  been  "  in 
deaths  oft."  It  is  the  experience  of  the  sol- 
dier whose  companions  in  the  trenches  have 
been  killed  on  either  side  of  him.  And  all  in 
times  of  peace,  without  uniform  or  beat  of 

23 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

drum,  without  the  aid  of  the  excitement  of 
the  stricken  field!  That  which  these  men 
did  and  endured  was  under  the  conditions  of 
a  cold  courage  —  the  noblest  and  rarest  kind 
of  courage. 

The  situations  were  widely  different,  but 
the  heroes  thus  described  were  kinsmen  of 
those  whom  we  have  in  memory  to-day,  and 
kinsmen  of  those  other  heroes  the  thought 
of  whom,  dying  this  moment  on  battlefields 
in  Europe,  subordinates  this  year  the  mem- 
ory of  every  other  war.  Heroes  of  peace,  he- 
roes of  battle  —  they  are  all  alike  heroic  in 
the  fact  that  they  hazarded  their  lives.  In  the 
supreme  moment,  they  considered  not  them- 
selves. All  their  possessions,  all  their  pros- 
pects, all  the  things  for  which  men  compete 
and  strive,  even  to  life  itself,  they  piled  up  on 
the  altar  of  their  sacrifice. 

We  praise  unselfishness ;  we  assent  to  the 
assertion  that  all  the  virtues  are  included  in 
it ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  we  group  it  with 
the  passive  excellencies.  In  our  common 
thought  it  does  not  stand  among  the  mas- 
teries. It  is  gracious  and  beautiful,  but  we  do 
not  instinctively  recognise  it  as  a  manifesta- 
tion of  strength.  The  strong  man  asserts 
24 


MEMORIAL  DAY 

himself,  impresses  himself  on  his  neigh- 
bours, leads  the  way,  gives  the  words  of 
command,  and  gets  himself  obeyed.  We  say 
dutifully  that  the  meek  shall  inherit  the 
earth,  but  we  do  not  believe  it.  The  meek? 
They  are  the  unselfish,  the  humble-minded, 
who  have  no  disposition  to  push  their  way 
among  their  fellows,  and  are  not  seeking 
anything  for  themselves.  How  shall  they  in- 
herit the  earth?  the  earth,  which  has  been 
fought  for,  step  by  step,  in  all  ages,  as  it  is 
being  fought  for  to-day  in  the  fields  of  Bel- 
gium and  France,  and  has  been  inherited,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  by  the  stoutest  army! 

Then  comes  such  a  day  as  this,  when  we 
think  not  so  much  of  the  living  as  of  the  dead, 
and  commemorate  not  so  much  the  heroes 
as  the  martyrs,  and  we  begin  to  realise  that 
these  men  saved  the  world  by  dying  for  it. 
They  saved  it,  that  is,  by  an  act  out  of  which 
all  individual  self-seeking  had  been  taken. 
In  the  face  of  death,  hazarding  their  lives, 
losing  their  lives,  they  asked  nothing  for 
themselves.  They  gave  all;  and  gave  it  for 
their  cause,  for  their  country,  for  the  for- 
warding of  their  ideal  among  men.  We  un- 
derstand how  our  Lord  said  that  He  came 

25 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

not  to  be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister, 
and  expressed  in  that  sentence  a  standard  of 
life  into  which  all  the  strengths  and  mas- 
teries are  lifted  up. 

If  we  say  that  the  men  whose  self-sacrifice 
is  recalled  by  this  Memorial  Day  hazarded 
their  lives,  indeed,  but  not  "  for  the  name  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  then  we  may  re- 
member the  debate  which  was  argued  in  the 
presence  of  St.  Anselm  regarding  a  predeces- 
sor of  his  in  the  see  of  Canterbury,  St.  Al- 
phege.  It  was  said  that  Alphege  could  not 
properly  be  called  a  saint  because  he  did  not 
die  in  the  service  of  religion.  The  invading 
Danes  having  captured  Alphege  and  holding 
him  for  ransom,  he  refused  to  allow  the  bur- 
den of  his  release  to  be  laid  upon  his  people. 
They  were  poor  enough,  he  said,  already. 
Thus  he  died  in  resistance  to  an  unjust  tax. 
But  Anselm  said  that  Alphege  was  a  saint 
indeed,  because  he  gave  his  life  for  the  com- 
mon good,  and  the  common  good  is  the  cause 
of  God. 

Thus  died  the  men  of  the  war  which  was 

ended  fifty  years  ago.  They  died  to  set  men 

free.  They  died  to  convert  a  confederacy  of 

states  into  a  united  nation.  Even  the  second 

26 


MEMORIAL  DAY 

of  these  purposes  was  so  contributory  to  the 
prosperity  and  abiding  peace  of  our  people 
that  we  may  recognise  in  it  a  religious  value, 
and  see  the  connection  of  it  with  the  cause  of 
Christ.  Concerning  the  first,  there  is  no 
doubt  whatever.  These  men  fought  in  a  war 
of  the  Lord.  They  hazarded  their  lives  for 
the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

It  may  be  discussed  —  and  perhaps  with 
profit  —  whether  the  results  which  they  at- 
tained by  the  tragedy  of  war  could  not  have 
been  gained,  and,  on  the  whole,  much  better 
gained,  by  the  patient  processes  of  peace. 
We  may  frankly  admit  that  the  idea  that 
moral  betterment  can  never  be  had  except  by 
the  methods  of  the  jungle  is  altogether  in- 
tolerable. Nevertheless,  the  fact  remains 
that  these  men  fought,  and  that  out  of  their 
fighting,  out  of  the  hazard  of  their  lives, 
came  those  good  results.  We  remember 
them  to-day  not  as  heroes  only  but  as  bene- 
factors. 

Standing  by  the  graves  of  these  men  we 
look  out  into  our  contemporary  world.  The 
storm  of  strife  increases.  On  goes  the  un- 
ceasing tragedy  of  the  war.  We  place  our 
memorial  flowers  on  the  graves  of  the  men 

27 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

of  half-a-century  ago  at  a  time  when  the 
making  of  graves  has  come  to  be  one  of  the 
chief  industries  of  the  race.  They  cannot  be 
dug  fast  enough  to  satisfy  the  daily  demand. 
But  we  perceive  that  we  can  in  some  meas- 
ure understand  now  what  was  taking  place 
among  us  fifty  years  ago.  We  can  see  in  cer- 
tain definite  details  how  all  that  misery  and 
pain  and  grief  were  concerned  with  human 
progress.  And  we  believe,  in  the  midst  of  the 
present  strife  of  the  nations,  that  this  also 
shall  some  time  be  understood,  and  shall  be 
found  serviceable  toward  the  long  plans  of 
God. 

It  may  be  that  the  men  who  are  now  haz- 
arding their  lives  are  by  their  pain  bringing 
on  the  end  not  of  this  war  only  but  of  all  war. 
The  Carnegie  Endowment  for  International 
Peace  puts  forth  a  statement  saying,  "  We 
wish  to  say  to  all  friends  of  peace  that  the 
dreadful  war  now  waging  affords  no  just 
cause  for  discouragement,  no  discredit  to 
past  efforts,  and  no  reason  to  doubt  that  still 
greater  efforts  in  the  future  may  be  effective 
and  useful.  The  war  itself  is  teaching  the 
gospel  of  peace  through  a  lesson  so  shocking 
and  so  terrible  that  the  most  indifferent  can- 
28 


MEMORIAL  DAY 

not  fail  to  attend  and  understand  it.  Not 
only  have  the  destruction  of  life,  the  devasta- 
tion and  suffering,  in  the  warring  countries 
passed  all  experience,  but  the  cessation  of 
production,  the  closing  of  markets,  the 
blocking  of  trade  routes,  the  interruption  of 
exchanges,  have  affected  industry  and 
caused  ruin  and  poverty  in  all  the  peaceful 
countries  of  the  world.  The  universal  inter- 
dependence of  nations  has  been  demon- 
strated, and  the  truth  forced  upon  every 
mind  that  the  peace  of  all  nations  is  the  vital 
concern  of  every  nation." 

And  there  is  another  effect  than  that.  The 
policy  of  frightfulness  has  brought  about  an 
unintended  result.  It  has  stained  and  de- 
faced the  ancient  glory  of  war.  It  has  cov- 
ered the  profession  of  arms  with  shame.  It 
has  taken  the  name  of  soldier,  which  in  spite 
of  all  the  inevitable  cruelties  of  war  has  kept 
a  tradition  of  nobility,  and  has  made  it  de- 
scriptive of  the  basest  crimes  of  criminals. 
The  report  of  Mr.  Bryce's  commission  to 
examine  into  the  conduct  of  the  war  in  Bel- 
gium writes  into  the  pages  of  carefully  au- 
thenticated history  the  record  of  an  army 
degraded  into  murderers,  and  adulterers  and 

29 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

thieves.  Here  is  war  reduced  to  a  calculated 
science,  divested  of  all  romance,  emptied  of 
all  chivalry,  equipped  with  torches  to  bum 
the  houses  of  non-combatants,  destroying 
here  an  ancient  university  and  there  a  ca- 
thedral consecrated  by  the  associations  of 
centuries,  levying  monstrous  fines :  and  this, 
not  in  the  heat  and  rage  of  battle,  not  as  the 
fiendish  acts  of  men  beyond  control,  but  in 
deliberation,  under  orders  written  in  mili- 
tary offices.  These  atrocities  are  the  last 
word  in  war.  They  are  the  accomplishment 
of  the  most  efficient  military  organisation 
which  has  been  seen  on  this  embattled  earth 
since  Cain  murdered  Abel.  They  reveal  war 
as  it  is,  a  horrible  crime  against  both  man 
and  God,  menacing  the  human  race  as  the 
savages  in  the  colonial  days  menaced  the 
settlers.  And  not  to  be  endured,  never  again 
to  be  permitted ! 

The  men  who  are  putting  their  lives  to 
hazard  will  break  down  that  increasing 
might  of  militarism  which  has  long  menaced 
the  prosperity  of  nations.  In  the  armed 
camp  of  Europe,  for  now  these  many  years, 
the  energy,  the  time  and  the  money  which 
are  needed  for  the  positive  purposes  of  civil- 
30 


MEMORIAL  DAY 

isation,  for  the  work  of  moral  and  social  con- 
struction, for  education  and  religion,  have 
been  diverted   into   the   unproductive   and 
perilous  maintenance  of  armies  and  the  mak- 
ing of  costly  munitions  of  war.  Every  hour 
of  this  time,  every  ounce  of  this  strength, 
and  every  dollar  of  this  money  have  been 
taken  from  the  great  purposes  in  which  we 
believe.  And  now  at  last  the  war  has  come 
for   which   these    preparations   have   been 
made.  We  may  trust  that  when  it  is  over, 
and  the  weary  and  wounded  nations  return 
to  the  life  which  human  beings  ought  to  live, 
they  will  do  so  in  a  temper  which  will  no 
longer  endure  the  existence  of  these  appli- 
ances for  the  murder  of  men.  They  will  take 
their  submarines  and  their  aeroplanes,  and 
their  shrapnel  and  their  poisons,  and  make  a 
bonfire  of  them  on  the  ruins  of  the  Krupp 
gun-factory  at  Essen,  in  the  light  of  whose 
flames  men  shall  be  able  to  read  the  fine 
print  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  from 
Petrograd  to  Constantinople,  and  from  the 
Straits  of  Gibraltar  to  the  Kiel  Canal. 

The  war  has  deepened  the  moral  and  spir- 
itual life  in  the  belligerent  countries.  Old 
frivolities  are  being  cast  aside,  like  the  toys 

31 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

of  childhood.  A  new  seriousness,  a  new  con- 
sciousness of  God,  a  revival  of  religion  ap- 
pears. This  may  be  due,  indeed,  in  part,  to 
the  fact  that  whole  populations  are  suddenly 
brought  face  to  face  with  the  peril  of  death. 
Every  man  who  goes  to  the  front  knows 
very  well  that  he  may  never  return,  and  that 
thought  is  in  the  hearts  of  all  his  relatives 
and  friends.  They  all  put  on  a  cheerful  face, 
so  far  as  they  are  able,  and  away  goes  the 
father,  husband,  son, -amidst  shouts  of  ap- 
plause and  the  waving  of  brave  farewells, 
but  nothing  can  disguise  the  presence  of  the 
awful  probability  of  death.  It  puts  a  new 
value  on  all  that  part  of  life  which  cannot 
die.  It  emphasises  religion. 

But  this  it  does,  also,  because  it  beats  true 
with  the  heart  of  religion  itself.  This  su- 
preme unselfishness,  this  offering  of  oneself 
for  the  common  good,  this  hazarding  of 
one's  life  for  a  great  cause,  is  of  the  very  es- 
sence of  Christianity,  and  finds  its  symbol 
in  the  cross  of  Christ.  "  Militarism,"  says 
President  Tucker,  "has  nothing  to  teach 
Christianity  regarding  the  practice  of  the 
heroic  virtues.  A  religion  which  was  born  in 
the  supreme  act  of  sacrificial  courage,  which 
32 


MEMORIAL  DAY 

defied  the  centuries  of  persecution,  which 
mastered  in  turn  the  virile  races  of  Europe, 
which  conquered  despotism  and  cast  out 
slavery,  which  has  subdued  savage  tribes, 
and  now  holds  its  outposts  in  all  dark  and 
cruel  parts  of  the  hospitable  earth,  is  not  a 
religion  to  be  asked  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  mod- 
ern militarism." 

Christianity  is  a  militant  religion,  into 
whose  service  we  are  enlisted  as  true  sol- 
diers. It  has  v/ithin  it  place  and  play  for  all 
the  heroic  virtues:  not  for  the  courage  of 
the  arm  only,  but  for  the  more  difficult  cour- 
age of  the  conscience ;  not  for  strength  only, 
but  for  chivalry.  It  is  a  contention  against 
principalities  and  powers,  against  the  devil, 
against  everything  that  is  mean  and  base 
and  evil  in  the  world.  War  comes  and  con- 
tradicts it,  presenting  itself  as  the  great  self- 
ishness, the  great  endeavour  of  the  strong 
to  subjugate  the  weak,  destructive,  ruthless, 
cruel.  And  yet  war  gives  it  opportunity, 
being  at  the  same  time  the  supreme  call  to 
unselfish  service,  and  rising  to  self-sacrifice. 
Memorial  Day  and  Trinity  Sunday  are  al- 
most coincident,  significantly.  For  Memorial 
Day  stands  for  the  fact  of  war,  and  Trinity 

33 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

Sunday  stands  for  the  fact  of  God.  What  we 
need  at  this  moment  is  somehow  to  hold 
those  facts  together,  and  to  bring  the  one 
to  the  interpretation  of  the  other.  And  for 
that  we  need  the  largest  possible  under- 
standing of  God.  In  the  midst  of  war,  for 
our  comfort,  for  our  faith,  we  would  renew 
our  belief  in  God  not  only  as  the  creator  of 
the  world,  and  not  only  as  the  redeemer  of 
the  race,  but  as  the  constant  sanctifier  of  hu- 
manity, our  unfailing  helper  in  the  long 
struggle  with  all  wrong,  in  whom  believing 
we  know  that  somehow,  beyond  our  sight, 
all  things,  even  in  the  storm  of  war,  shall 
work  together  for  the  accomplishment  of 
good. 


34 


ALL  SAINTS'  DAY  IN  A  WORLD 
AT  WAR 

They  wrought  righteousness.  Heb.  11:33. 
They  were  tempted.  11:37. 

^^?fHE  eleventh  chapter  of  the  Epistle 
^^  to  the  Hebrews  marches  like  a  pro- 
cession. 

First  come  the  kings  and  the  captains: 
Abel  in  the  lead,  after  him  Noah,  then  Abra- 
ham, then  Moses,  in  single  file,  dignified  and 
imposing  persons.  Then  follow  the  footsol- 
diers,  in  regiments  and  companies :  first,  the 
heroes  of  the  active  life,  the  men  who  did 
great  things, —  they  subdued  kingdoms, 
stopped  the  mouths  of  lions,  quenched  the 
violence  of  fire,  waxed  valiant  in  fight, 
turned  to  flight  the  armies  of  the  aliens; 
then,  the  heroes  of  the  passive  life,  the  men 
who  endured  great  things,—  they  had  trial 
of  mockings  and  scourgings,  of  bonds  and 
imprisonment,  they  were  stoned,  they  were 
sawn  asunder.  Thus  they  march,  the  heroes 

35 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

of  the  faith,  the  veterans  of  old  wars,  in  uni- 
form, with  gleaming  medals,  and  with  the 
scars  of  their  honourable  wounds  upon 
them. 

But  in  the  midst  of  these  regiments  of 
splendid  warriors  are  two  unexpected  and 
surprising  groups.  With  men  in  uniform  be- 
fore them,  and  men  in  uniform  behind  them, 
they  march  in  plain  attire,  in  citizen's  dress. 
It  looks  for  a  moment  as  if  some  quiet  per- 
sons, coming  in  out  of  the  country,  had  got 
into  the  procession  by  mistake. 

Among  the  heroes  of  the  active  life,  are 
those  whose  humble  record  is  contained  in 
the  description :  "  They  wrought  righteous- 
ness." This  is  the  best  that  can  be  said  of 
them.  They  kept  the  commandments;  they 
were  just  plain  good.  And  among  the  heroes 
of  the  passive  life,  between  the  memorial 
banner  o^  those  who  were  sawn  asunder  and 
the  memorial  banner  of  those  who  were 
slain  with  the  sword,  is  an  army  of  people 
still  more  humble,  of  whom  the  very  best 
that  can  be  said  is,  "  They  were  tempted." 
Why,  we  are  all  tempted.  As  the  long  vic- 
torious procession  passes,  and  these  citizens 
come  in  sight,  we  spectators,  any  of  us,  may 
36 


ALL  SAINTS'  DAY 

come  in  off  the  common  sidewalk,  and  take 
our  places  in  these  ranks,  keeping  step  with 
them.  Of  course,  they  resisted  temptation. 
This  is  a  march  of  triumph,  not  of  defeat. 
But  we,  too,  resist  temptation,  sometimes. 
If  there  is  room  among  the  heroes  for  such 
as  these,  there  is  room  for  such  as  we. 

It  means  that  there  is  another  heroism  be- 
side the  heroism  of  the  battle.  There  is  a 
heroism  of  the  camp. 

We  come  in  sight  of  the  same  contrast 
when  we  read  side  by  side  this  roll  of  brave 
men  in  the  eleventh  chapter  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  and  the  roll  of  brave  men  in 
the  eleventh  chapter  of  the  First  Book  of 
Chronicles. 

The  Old  Testament  heroes  were  persons 
of  strenuous  activity.  One  of  them  led  the 
attack  which  resulted  in  the  taking  of  Jeru- 
salem by  the  Jews.  He  climbed  up  the  steep 
face  of  the  cliff,  as  Wolfe  climbed  to  the 
Heights  of  Abraham.  Another  met  three 
hundred  Philistines,  and  faced  them  with 
his  single  spear,  and  slew  them  at  one  time. 
Three  of  them,  in  the  heat  of  battle,  heard 
David  say,  *'  Oh,  that  one  would  get  me  a 
drink  of  water  from  the  well  by  the  gate  of 

37 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

Bethlehem,"  and  they  brake  through  the 
host  of  the  Philistines  and  drew  water  out  of 
the  well  and  brought  it  to  David.  Another 
slew  a  lion  in  the  midst  of  a  pit  on  a  stormy 
day.  Another  fought  a  duel  with  an  Eg)^- 
tian  giant ;  the  Egyptian  was  eight  feet  high, 
and  had  a  spear  like  a  weaver's  beam;  the 
hero  plucked  the  spear  out  of  the  Egyptian's 
hand  and  slew  him. 

The  heroes  of  the  New  Testament  list 
showed  their  courage  in  altogether  different 
ways.  Abel  was  a  hero  because  he  offered 
an  acceptable  sacrifice.  Noah  was  a  hero 
because  he  built  an  ark.  Enoch  was  a  hero 
because  he  walked  with  God.  Abraham  was 
a  hero  because  he  went  into  a  new  country, 
and  there  made  a  home  for  himself  and  his 
family  after  him.  Moses  was  a  hero  because 
he  preferred  to  suffer  affliction  with  the  peo- 
ple of  God  rather  than  enjoy  the  pleasures 
of  Egypt.  Their  heroism  was  displayed  not 
in  the  field  of  military  courage,  but  in  the 
field  of  character.  Not  one  of  them  won  his 
renown  by  killing  anybody. 

It  means  that  there  is  another  heroism  be- 
side the  heroism  of  danger.  It  is  the  hero- 
ism of  quiet  duty. 
38 


ALL  SAINTS'  DAY 

A  Hebrew  captain,  on  the  eve  of  a  difficult 
and  dangerous  campaign,  heard  the  voice  of 
God  in  his  soul,  and  the  voice  said,  "Be 
strong  and  very  courageous."  Of  course. 
These  are  the  proper  qualities  of  captains. 
But  the  rest  of  the  sentence  is  in  the  New 
Testament  spirit:  "Be  strong  and  very 
courageous  —  that  thou  mayest  observe  to 
do  according  to  all  the  law."  The  Lord  says, 
"  Joshua,  you  will  be  brave  in  battle :  that  is 
taken  for  granted.  That  is  easy.  But  the 
hardest  thing  that  you  will  have  to  do  is  to 
keep  the  commandments.  The  conquest  of 
the  Canaanites  is  a  matter  of  course.  You 
and  your  men  will  fight,  and  enjoy  it.  But 
after  the  Canaanites  are  conquered,  you  will 
have  to  fight  the  devil.  That  is  a  very  differ- 
ent and  more  serious  matter.  You  will  have 
to  fight  against  the  devil.  You  must  resist 
temptation,  and  help  your  people  to  resist  it. 
You  must  be  righteous  and  make  your  peo- 
ple righteous." 

It  is  plain  —  is  it  not?  —  that  this  call  to 
the  heroism  of  the  camp  demands  even  more 
than  the  call  to  the  heroism  of  the  battle. 

The  thing  is  verified  in  the  experience  of 
every  nation.  It  seems  hard  enough  to  die 

39 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

for  one's  country,  but  it  is  much  harder  to 
live  for  one's  country.  Men,  for  example, 
are  found  in  great  numbers  ready  to  imperil 
their  lives  in  the  defence  of  the  community 
against  a  foreign  enemy.  But  when  it  comes 
to  imperilling  their  property,  their  business 
interests,  their  personal  comfort  or  conven- 
ience, in  the  defence  of  the  community 
against  intolerable  political  conditions,  or 
against  the  devil  entrenched  in  the  brothel 
or  the  saloon,  that  is  another  matter.  Men 
who  would  be  brave  soldiers  are  found  to  be 
timid  citizens.  Sometimes  they  are  found  to 
be  treacherous  citizens,  actual  enemies  of 
the  community,  contending  for  their  own 
advantage  against  the  life  and  character  of 
their  neighbours.  They  are  willing  to  own 
houses  which  poison  the  bodies  and  souls  of 
those  who  live  in  them,  or  to  employ  for 
their  own  gain  the  labour  of  women  and 
children  under  such  conditions  of  hours  and 
pay  that  the  women  are  unfitted  to  be  moth- 
ers, and  the  boys  and  girls  are  unable  to 
grow  up  into  good  men  and  women. 

Dr.  Benjamin  Church,  in  the  Revolution, 
was  taken  out  of  Cambridge  to  the  music  of 
a    fife    and    drum    playing    the    **  Rogue's 
40 


ALL  SAINTS*  DAY 

March/*  because  he  was  discovered  to  be 
carrying    on    a    traitorous    correspondence 
with  the  enemy  during  the  siege  of  Boston. 
That  was  in  time  of  war.  At  such  a  time, 
traitors  are  recognised  and  sharply  disci- 
plined. But  in  times  of  peace,  one  may  be  a 
traitor  to  his  social  trusts  without  fairly  per- 
ceiving his  own  treachery.  Miss  Addams,  in 
her  "  Twenty  Years  at  Hull  House,"  speaks 
of  a  man  whose  conscience  was  in  serious 
doubt  as  to  the  righteousness  of  contribu- 
ting money  to  a  social  settlement  because 
the  settlements  give  no  religious  instruc- 
tion, while  at  the  same  time  the  conscience 
of   the    settlement   itself   was   even   more 
deeply  perplexed  as  to  its  right  to  take  his 
money  because  of  the  notorious  unscrupu- 
lousness  of  his  business  methods.  So  easy 
is  it  to  attend  to  the  great  transactions  of 
the  battle,  and  at  the  same  time  to  disregard 
the  common  duties  of  the  camp.  They  who 
wrought  righteousness  belong  among  the 
heroes.  They  fought  as  brave  a  fight  as  they 
who  "turned  to  flight  the  armies  of  the 
aliens." 

You  can  see  how  this  interprets  the  festi- 
val of  All  Saints.  It  is  a  day  which  brings 

41 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

plain  people  into  the  company  o£  prophets 
and  apostles.  It  extends  the  list  o£  Christian 
saints  till  it  includes  so  great  a  multitude 
that  no  man  could  number  them.  They 
stand  before  us  a  shining  company  uncanon- 
ised  and  uncalendared,  but  wearing  haloes 
of  celestial  light.  They  have  no  place  in  the 
pages  of  history.  There  is  no  record  of  their 
names.  Such  commemoration  as  they  have 
is  like  the  Tower  of  the  Forty  Martyrs  by 
the  coast  of  Syria,  concerning  which  nobody 
knows  who  the  martyrs  were,  or  in  what 
holy  war  they  offered  up  their  lives,  or  even 
whether  they  were  Mohammedans  or  Chris- 
tians. They  are  indistinguishably  lost  in  the 
ranks  of  the  private  soldiers  of  whom  the 
whole  army  of  martyrs  is  composed. 

Thus  the  portion  of  Scripture  appointed 
for  the  epistle  for  All  Saints'  Day  is  the  most 
monotonous  passage  of  the  New  Testament : 
"  Of  the  tribe  of  Juda  were  sealed  twelve 
thousand.  Of  the  tribe  of  Reuben  were 
sealed  twelve  thousand.  Of  the  tribe  of  Gad 
were  sealed  twelve  thousand."  And  so  on 
down  the  list,  wherein  one  tribe  is  exactly 
like  every  other  tribe,  and  the  regiments  of 
twelve  thousand  march  in  step,  every  man 
42 


ALL  SAINTS*  DAY 

like  every  other  man,  without  any  individual 
distinction.  When  the  hundred  and  forty- 
four  thousand  saints  are  finally  numbered, 
and  to  them  is  added  the  innumerable  com- 
pany of  other  saints,  of  all  nations  and  kin- 
dreds and  people  and  tongues,  standing  be- 
fore the  throne,  clothed  in  white  robes  and 
having  palms  in  their  hands,  all  that  we  see 
is  a  vast  multitude  in  which  no  person  ap- 
pears to  be  of  separate  value. 

Then  we  remember  that  wars  are  won  by 
armies,  not  by  captains ;  and  cities  are  built 
by  companies  of  labourers,  many  of  whom, 
in  these  days  when  our  unskilled  workmen 
come  from  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  are 
known  not  by  their  names  but  by  their  num- 
bers. The  kingdom  of  God  is  set  forward 
daily  by  the  honest  lives  of  plain  people,  by 
faith  and  love  of  which  the  world  knows 
nothing,  by  prayer  and  patience  seen  only 
by  Him  who  seeth  in  secret.  We  perceive, 
indeed,  when  we  consider  the  matter,  that 
the  great  saints,  even  the  apostles,  were  dis- 
tinguished chiefly  by  their  loyalty,  not  by 
their  ability.  Even  in  their  loyalty,  they 
failed  sometimes.  When  a  book  is  written 
about  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  the  writer 

43 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

can  find  only  two  of  the  first  twelve  concern- 
ing whom  he  may  report ;  and  of  these  two, 
one  says  never  a  word,  and  appears  only  as 
the  shadow  of  the  other.  As  for  the  rest,  the 
roll  is  called  at  the  beginning  of  the  book, 
and  thereafter  they  are  heard  of  no  more: 
not  because  they  were  unfaithful,  not  be- 
cause they  accomplished  little,  but  because 
the  things  which  they  did  were  so  simple,  so 
quiet,  so  involved  in  the  customary  routine 
of  life,  that  the  historian  did  not  find  enough 
material  in  their  experience  to  make  a  para- 
graph. Peter,  indeed,  preaches  in  the  street, 
in  defiance  of  the  municipal  authorities,  and 
is  arrested,  and  put  in  prison.  There  is  a 
whole  chapter  about  that.  But  Andrew 
found  his  brother  Simon,  and  he  brought 
him  to  Jesus;  Philip  found  Nathaniel:  the 
fact  may  be  stated  in  a  sentence;  it  cannot 
well  be  expanded  into  pages.  Nevertheless, 
thus  it  was  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
grew,  by  quiet  influence,  by  the  word  and 
example  of  plain  people,  by  the  kind  of  saint- 
liness  which  we  commemorate  on  All  Saints' 
Day. 

We  perceive  also  that  the  All  Saints'  Day 
Epistle,  which  marches  the  saints  in  regi- 
44 


ALL  SAINTS'  DAY 

ments  of  twelve  thousand,  and  shows  us, 
after  these  have  passed,  how  the  procession 
pushes  on  so  eagerly  that  all  the  order  of  the 
ranks  is  broken,  and  the  street  is  filled  from 
fence  to  fence  with  a  great  multitude  in 
which  saints  of  all  lands  and  languages  are 
crowded  together,—  this  epistle  is  followed 
by  an  All  Saints'  Day  Gospel,  in  which 
heroism  is  defined  in  terms  of  simple  good- 
ness, not  in  terms  of  physical  courage.  The 
description  of  the  saints  in  this  passage  from 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  makes  no  men- 
tion of  stopping  the  mouths  of  lions,  or 
quenching  the  violence  of  fire,  or  turning  to 
fiight  the  armies  of  the  aliens.  It  is  con- 
cerned with  righteous  living,  and  with  the 
endurance  of  temptation.  The  heroes  mani- 
fest their  heroism  by  their  meekness,  by  be- 
ing merciful,  and  making  peace.  Theirs  is  a 
moral  courage. 

It  is  not,  indeed,  so  passive  as  it  looks. 
They  who  are  persecuted  for  righteousness' 
sake  are  not  submissive  persons.  They 
would  not  be  persecuted  if  they  were.  They 
are  the  obstinate  souls  who  will  not  yield, 
who  pay  no  heed  to  the  voice  of  a  majority 
in  error,  who  block  the  way  which  leads  to 

45 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

falsehood  and  wrong,  and  are  persecuted  be- 
cause nobody  can  go  that  way  without  en- 
countering them.  The  beatitudes  are  not  a 
glorification  of  the  merely  passive  virtues. 
But  what  they  say  is  this :  that  heroism  is  by 
no  means  dependent  upon  strength  of  arm 
or  boldness  of  spirit,  does  not  wait  for  any 
dramatic  occasion,  tarries  not  for  the  procla- 
mation of  a  war,  but  is  one  of  the  quiet  vir- 
tues, the  opportunity  for  whose  exercise 
comes  daily  into  even  the  most  sheltered 
lives.  Remember  how  a  philosopher  said 
that  he  who  habitually  speaks  the  truth  shall 
find  himself  in  situations  sufficiently  dra- 
matic ! 

Blessed  indeed  is  he  who  does  a  great 
thing  in  a  great  way.  Let  us  give  him  a  full 
measure  of  appreciation  and  applause.  But 
the  great  occasions  are  infrequent,  and  they 
who  thus  stand  out  before  the  eyes  of  the 
world,  even  of  the  little  world  of  their  own 
neighbourhood,  are  few  in  number.  Blessed 
are  they  who  have  learned  that  to  do  right- 
eousness and  to  resist  temptation  is  a  part  of 
the  day's  work  of  heroic  souls.  These  are 
the  heroes,  these  are  the  saints  of  the  Lord. 
46 


ALL  SAINTS*  DAY 

To  encounter  pain  and  disappointment 
and  discouragement  with  a  high  courage,  to 
be  of  good  cheer  when  all  the  conditions  are 
in  contradiction,  to  take  up  the  monoto- 
nous tasks  of  daily  duty  and  perform  them 
with  unfailing  faithfulness,  this  is  to  follow 
in  the  steps  of  the  most  holy  life,  and  sub- 
stantially to  set  forward  the  kingdom  of 
God.  This  is  to  take  one's  place  among  all 
the  saints. 

Remember  that  the  "  chief  of  the  devils," 
as  he  is  revealed  in  the  New  Testament,  is 
not  the  prince  of  the  power  of  the  air,  nor 
the  prince  of  the  power  of  the  water;  he 
makes  his  attack  neither  by  Zeppelin  nor  by 
submarine.  His  name  is  Beelzebub,  which, 
being  interpreted,  is  the  "  god  of  the  flies," 
the  god  of  the  stinging  flies.  He  is  the  devil 
of  petty  annoyances,  of  trifling  irritations,  of 
our  besetting  sins,  the  devil  of  the  diffi- 
culties of  common  life.  Against  this  devil 
we  go  not  in  uniform,  nor  to  the  sound  of 
drums  and  fifes.  So  much  the  worse  for  us. 
It  is  a  necessary  battle  in  as  hard  a  war  as  is 
being  fought  to-day  upon  this  blood-stained 
earth.  It  calls  for  a  longer  courage  than  is 

47 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

needed  in  the  army,  as  the  trench  needs  a 
braver  spirit  than  the  charge.  They  who 
fight  in  this  campaign  with  patience  and  suc- 
cess are  not  only  saints  but  heroes. 


46 


CHRISTMAS  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

The  people  that  walked  in  darkness  have  seen  a 
great  light;  they  that  dwelt  in  the  land  of  the  shadow 
of  death  upon  them  hath  the  light  shined.  Isaiah  9:2. 

ONE  of  the  services  rendered  to  religion 
by  the  revisers  of  the  English  transla- 
tion of  the  Bible  is  to  bring  light  into  the 
darkness  of  the  Old  Testament  lesson  for 
the  morning  of  Christmas  Day. 

The  lesson  ends,  indeed,  in  a  blaze  of 
glory.  "  Unto  us  a  child  is  born,  unto  us  a 
son  is  given,  and  the  government  shall  be 
upon  his  shoulder,  and  his  name  shall  be 
called  Wonderful  Counsellor,  Mighty  God, 
Everlasting  Father,  Prince  of  Peace."  This 
is  as  plain  as  the  shining  day,  and  its  appro- 
priateness to  the  festival  of  Christ's  Nativity 
is  evident.  But  what  is  this  about  the  "  dim- 
ness "  which  "  shall  not  be  such  as  was  in 
her  affliction  "?  In  whose  affliction?  What  is 
this  about  multiplying  the  nation  and  not  in- 
creasing the  joy?  It  reads  like  a  foreboding 
of  national  disaster  and  decline,  when  there 

49 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

are  more  people  to  be  fed  than  there  is  food 
to  feed  them.  "  For  every  battle  of  the  war- 
rior is  with  confused  noise  and  garments 
rolled  in  blood;  but  this  shall  be  with  burn- 
ing and  fuel  of  fire."  What  does  that  mean? 
How  does  it  agree  with  the  anthem  of  peace 
on  earth  which  the  Christmas  angels  sang? 

These  questions  are  answered  by  the  re- 
vised translation. 

Isaiah  was  speaking  at  the  moment  when 
the  northern  kingdom  of  Israel, —  the  land 
of  Zebulon  and  the  land  of  Naphtali,  Galilee 
of  the  nations  —  was  being  invaded  by  the 
Assyrians,  its  cities  and  sanctuaries  de- 
stroyed, and  its  people  deported.  In  the 
midst  of  this  distress,  which  we  are  able  to 
understand  by  comparison  with  events  now 
taking  place,  the  prophet  promised  deliver- 
ance. He  looked  on  as  we  do:  except  that 
between  the  conquered  territory  and  his 
own  country  there  was  no  protecting  bar- 
rier of  ocean.  He  was  a  wise  man,  who  saw 
that  the  flood  of  invasion  would  not  be 
stopped  by  any  boundary  line,  but  would  roll 
even  to  the  walls  of  Jerusalem.  The  world 
was  at  war,  and  no  land  was  safe.  Still,  he 
promised  peace  and  prosperity.  So  strong 
50 


CHRISTMAS  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

was  his  confidence  that  he  spoke  as  if  the 
divine  blessing  had  already  come.  He 
looked  through  the  smoke  of  burning  cities 
and  saw  light. 

"  There  shall  be  no  gloom  in  her  that  was 
in  anguish.  In  the  former  time  he  brought 
into  contempt  the  land  of  Zebulon  and  the 
land  of  Naphtali ;  but  in  the  latter  time  hath 
he  made  it  glorious,  by  way  of  the  sea,  be- 
yond the  Jordan,  Galilee  of  the  nations.  The 
people  that  walked  in  darkness  have  seen  a 
great  light;  they  that  dwelt  in  the  land  of 
the  shadow  of  death,  upon  them  hath  the 
light  shined.  Thou  hast  multiplied  the  na- 
tion and  increased  their  joy.  They  joy  be- 
fore thee  according  to  the  joy  in  harvest,  as 
men  rejoice  when  they  divide  the  spoil.  For 
the  yoke  of  his  burden,  and  the  staff  of  his 
shoulder,  the  rod  of  his  oppressor,  thou  hast 
broken  as  in  the  day  of  Midian.  For  all  the 
armour  of  the  armed  men  in  the  tumult,  and 
the  garments  rolled  in  blood,  shall  be  for 
burning,  for  fuel  of  fire."  The  munitions  and 
the  munition  factories  and  all  the  imple- 
ments of  war,  and  every  bloody  trace  of  bat- 
tle, shall  the  clean  fire  consume. 

It  is  a  promise  of  national  salvation.  The 

51 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

yoke  of  the  invader  shall  be  broken,  and  all 
the  armour  of  the  invading  soldiers  shall  be 
burned.  The  nation  shall  be  greater  than 
before,  with  more  people,  and  more  joy  in 
proportion.  This  shall  be  accomplished  by 
that  Messianic  deliverer  whose  four  mys- 
tical names  are  Wonderful  Counsellor, 
Mighty  God,  Everlasting  Father,  Prince  of 
Peace. 

We  bring  over  the  great  words  from  their 
connection  with  the  strife  of  contending 
peoples  long  ago  in  Asia  to  their  relation  to 
the  strife  of  contending  peoples  at  this  day 
in  Europe,  and  to  all  other  strife  between 
right  and  wrong,  and  all  other  conflict  be- 
tween joy  and  sorrow.  Our  leader,  our  hope, 
our  invincible  strength  is  that  same  Prince 
of  old  whom  we  now  identify  with  the  Sav- 
iour of  the  World.  "  Unto  us  a  child  is  born, 
unto  us  a  son  is  given,  and  the  government 
shall  be  upon  his  shoulder."  It  is  true  again 
for  us,  and  true  forever,  that  "  the  people 
that  walked  in  darkness  have  seen  a  great 
light;  they  that  dwelt  in  the  land  of  the 
shadow  of  death,  upon  them  hath  the  light 
shined."  It  is  a  Christmas  text  for  Cardinal 
Mercier  in  the  midst  of  the  ruins  of  Belgium. 
52 


CHRISTMAS  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

Christmas  is  the  symbol  and  assurance  of 
that  saving  light.  It  shines  to-day  in  the 
dark  world  as  the  skies  shone  when  the  an- 
gels sang  over  the  fields  of  Bethlehem.  Its 
message  to  all  afflicted  people  is  the  mes- 
sage of  that  holy  night  when  the  Child  was 
born  and  the  Son  was  given,  "Behold,  I 
bring  you  good  tidings  of  great  joy  which 
shall  be  to  all  people :  for  unto  you  is  bom  a 
Saviour,  which  is  Christ,  the  Lord." 

Christmas  is  so  much  a  time  of  merry- 
making that  we  easily  miss  its  profound  sig- 
nificance as  a  Festival  of  Consolation.  Sad 
people  seem  out  of  place  in  it.  If  they  can- 
not be  glad  and  laugh  and  sing,  and  take  part 
in  our  games,  let  them  go  away  by  them- 
selves until  after  New  Year's  Day.  Their 
faces  do  not  suit  the  gay  colours  of  our  deco- 
rations; their  voices  make  a  discord  in  our 
carols. 

Not  at  all.  Not  only  does  the  wide  and 
warm  hospitality  of  Christmas  take  in  all 
sorts  of  men,  but  the  holy  day  is  vitally  re- 
lated to  the  tragedy  of  life.  The  light  of  it 
shines  in  the  darkness,  and  is  made  visible 
by  the  darkness,  as  the  stars  appear  when 
the  sun  is  out  of  sight.  The  ministry  of 

53 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

grew  dark  again,  and  the  hard  problems  had 
to  be  undertaken  as  before,  and  nobody  was 
promoted  or  enriched.  The  shepherds  went 
out,  night  after  night,  into  the  chill  pastures. 
Joseph  and  Mary  worked  for  their  living, 
and  having  had  no  friends  before  in  Bethle- 
hem had  enemies  now,  and  fled  for  their  lives. 
The  singing  of  the  choir  of  heaven  which 
seemed,  for  the  moment,  to  be  the  beginning 
of  an  oratorio  of  general  peace  and  joy,  was 
followed  by  the  cries  of  the  mothers  of  Beth- 
lehem who  were  weeping  for  their  children, 
and  could  not  be  comforted.  Anybody  who 
is  sad  this  Christmas  may  find  his  counter- 
part in  the  Christmas  story. 

Nevertheless,  the  quality  of  life  was 
changed,  the  meaning  of  life  was  inter- 
preted, and  the  Christmas  people  went  for- 
ward into  the  new  day  with  hearts  uplifted, 
and  with  a  joy  which  no  affliction  could  take 
from  them. 

Christmas  is  a  Festival  of  Consolation.  It 
is  true  that  the  Christmas  candles,  as  they 
burn,  burn  down;  and  the  Christmas  gar- 
lands wither;  the  symbols  of  our  happiness 
are  also  symbols  of  the  transitoriness  of  hu- 
man life.  Every  year,  and  this  year  more 
56 


CHRISTMAS  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

than  ever  before,  there  are  those  who  see 
these  things  through  their  tears.  But  the 
Christmas  blessing  is  as  abiding  as  the  light, 
which  shines  not  only  in  the  candles  but  in 
the  sun  and  the  stars ;  it  is  as  abiding  as  the 
life  which  is  perpetually  renewed  in  the 
growing  trees,  and  in  all  the  harvests  of  the 
earth.  When  the  spring  comes,  even  the 
battlefields  shall  be  green  again.  The  wan- 
ing candles  and  the  withering  wreaths  are 
only  incidents  in  the  great,  wise,  providen- 
tial ordering  of  things. 

For  the  heart  of  Christmas  is  the  mani- 
festation of  the  care  of  God.  This  it  is  which 
is  preached  in  the  sermons,  and  lifted  into 
song  in  carols  and  anthems,  and  celebrated 
in  all  the  holy  solemnities. 

What  we  need  is  to  know  the  meaning  o£ 
our  life.  Bitter  experiences  befall  us,  disap- 
pointment and  foreboding  darken  upon  us, 
all  our  individual  ills  blend  with  the  black 
background  of  the  present  woes  of  the 
world.  The  facts  make  pessimism  seem  rea- 
sonable and  inevitable.  But  Isaiah  kept  his 
faith  under  conditions  which  contradicted  it 
as  sharply  as  ever  the  Great  War  will.  In 
the  shadow  of  death  he  saw  the  light  of  life. 

57 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

Because  he  believed  in  God.  And  Christmas 
comes  certifying  the  care  of  God,  and  assur- 
ing us  in  spite  of  all  the  oppositions  of  dis- 
tress and  doubt  that  we  are  the  children 
of  the  divine  Father.  His  dealing  with  us 
passes  our  understanding,  but  we  know  that 
somehow  it  is  wise  and  right.  The  Son  of 
God,  our  Brother,  was  cradled  in  a  manger 
and  after  many  bitter  trials  and  disappoint- 
ments was  put  to  death  on  a  cross:  we  re- 
member that,  when  life  seems  difficult  and 
tragic. 

He  came  to  save  us  from  our  sins  and  sor- 
rows, and  all  along,  on  Christmas  Days  and 
other  days,  he  does  it,  till  they  who  walk  in 
darkness  see  great  light,  and  the  light  shines 
even  on  them  that  dwell,  like  our  brothers 
across  the  sea,  in  the  land  of  the  shadow  of 
death.  Over  our  heads  the  heavens  glow 
with  new  radiance,  and  there  are  voices 
from  the  sky  and  music  of  celestial  choirs 
and  proclamations  of  eternal  joy.  We  per- 
ceive that  behind  the  heavy  clouds  are  the 
gates  of  heaven.  We  enter  with  new  faith 
and  new  courage  into  the  Christmas  conso- 
lation. 


58 


GOD  AND  THE  WORLD'S  PAIN 

Why  standest  thou  so  far  off,  O  Lord,  and  hidest 
thy  face  in  the  needful  time  of  trouble?  Psalm  io:i. 

XT  is  the  everlasting  question  which  is 
asked  in  all  time  of  tribulation,  and 
now  especially  in  the  increasing  distresses 
of  the  war.  There  is  some  measure  of  com- 
fort in  the  fact  that  it  has  been  asked  innu- 
merable times,  ever  since  the  race  of  man 
began  to  think,  and  that  although  it  has 
never  been  answered  to  our  complete  satis- 
faction, still  we  go  on.  Still  we  go  on  believ- 
ing that  this  is  on  the  whole  a  good  world, 
governed  by  a  good  God. 

Every  vast  disaster,  like  this  war,  every 
apparent  contradiction  of  the  fatherhood  of 
God,  has  driven  some  people  into  the  con- 
fusion and  darkness  of  doubt.  At  first  they 
have  said,  "  How  long  wilt  thou  forget  me, 
O  Lord,  for  ever?  how  long  wilt  thou  hide 
thy  face  from  me?  "  Then  they  have  cried, 
"  My  God,  my  God,  look  upon  me,  why  hast 

59 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

thou  forsaken  me?  "  Then  they  have  given 
it  all  up,  saying  in  their  heart,  *'  There  is  no 
God."  And  all  this  they  have  done  as  if  they 
had  entered  into  an  altogether  new  experi- 
ence, and  had  made  a  new  discovery  about 
God  and  the  world's  pain. 

It  is  one  of  the  oldest  of  all  discoveries. 
Every  element  of  bitterness  in  it,  every  rea- 
son for  doubt  and  disbelief,  has  been  felt,  and 
reckoned  with,  and  counted,  and  faced,  since 
trouble  entered  into  the  life  of  man.  It  is 
one  of  the  primitive  problems.  The  present 
war  has  added  nothing  to  it.  These  tragic 
years  have  brought  to  our  attention  no  de- 
tail of  suffering  or  sorrow,  no  injustice,  no 
evidence  of  the  incredible  patience,  or  of  the 
non-existence,  of  God,  which  has  not  been 
written  in  the  books  of  history  a  hundred 
thousand  times.  The  only  contribution 
which  the  present  war  brings  to  this  imme- 
morial problem  is  the  realisation  of  it  which 
comes  from  its  approach  to  us. 

The  idea  that  faith  has  entered  now  into 
an  unprecedented  peril,  and  that  belief  in 
the  power  or  in  the  goodness  of  God  must 
perish  from  the  creeds  of  men,  can  be  held 
only  by  those  who  are  unacquainted  with 
60 


GOD  AND  THE  WORLD'S  PAIN 

history.  The  whole  matter  was  faced  and 
fought  out  by  the  Christians  who  experi- 
enced the  overthrow  of  the  Roman  Empire 
at  the  hands  of  the  Goths  and  Vandals. 
Even  then,  it  had  been  faced  and  fought  out 
long  before  by  the  Jews  who  experienced 
the  overthrow  of  the  Hebrew  Empire  at  the 
hands    of    the    Assyrians    and    Chaldeans. 
These  peoples  met  the  question  of  the  provi- 
dence of  God  under  the  conditions  of  defeat : 
conditions  which  magnified  every  difficulty 
of  the  problem.  The  Jews  of  the  Chaldean 
invasion  and  the  Christians  of  the  Gothic  in- 
vasion, not  only  cried  "  Why  standest  thou 
so  far  off,  O  Lord,  and  hidest  thy  face  in  the 
needful  time  of  trouble?''  but  they  said, 
"  Mine  enemies  live  and  are  mighty ;  thou  art 
far  off,  and  puttest  us  to  confusion,  and  go- 
est  not  forth  with  our  armies.  Thou  makest 
us  to  turn  our  backs  upon  our  enemies,  so 
that  they  which  hate  us  spoil  our  goods. 
Thou  lettest  us  be  eaten  like  sheep.  They 
have  set  fire  upon  thy  holy  places;  they 
break  down  all  the  carved  work  thereof  with 
axes  and  hammers.  Our  bones  are  scattered 
at  the  grave's  mouth,  as  when  one  cutteth 
and  cleaveth  wood  upon  the  earth." 

6i 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

The  significant  thing  is  that  none  of  these 
vast  calamities  destroyed  or  even  seriously 
discouraged  faith.  The  king  of  the  Assyri- 
ans came  marching  down  upon  Jerusalem, 
as  the  Germans  came  upon  the  Belgians, 
and  as  the  Turks  came  upon  the  Armenians. 
He  said  in  his  heart,  "  I  have  removed  the 
bounds  of  the  people,  and  have  robbed  their 
treasures,  I  have  put  down  the  inhabitants 
like  a  valiant  man.  My  hand  hath  found  as 
a  nest  the  riches  of  the  people ;  as  one  gath- 
ereth  eggs  that  are  left,  have  I  gathered  all 
the  earth;  and  there  was  none  that  moved 
the  wing,  or  opened  the  mouth,  or  peeped." 
After  the  Assyrians  came  the  Chaldeans, 
and  Jerusalem  was  destroyed,  so  that  not 
one  stone  was  left  upon  another.  But  faith 
survived  in  triumph.  An  invincible  trust  in 
God  over-balanced  all  the  pain  of  the  world. 
So  it  is  to-day. 

This  belief  has  not  depended  on  a  process 
of  convincing  argument,  or  on  a  satisfactory 
understanding  of  the  world. 

In  the  Old  Testament  a  common  explana- 
tion of  prosperity  and  adversity,  of  success 
and  defeat,  of  war  and  peace,  is  in  moral 
terms.  The  prosperous  are  blessed  of  God 

62 


GOD  AND  THE  WORLD^S  PAIN 

with  prosperity  because  they  are  good,  the 
unprosperous  are  cursed  with  adversity  be- 
cause they  are  bad.  Thus  it  is  written  in  the 
book  of  Deuteronomy:  "It  shall  come  to 
pass  if  thou  shalt  hearken  diligently  unto 
the  voice  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  to  observe 
and  to  do  all  his  commandments  which  I 
command  thee  this  day,  that  the  Lord  thy 
God  will  set  thee  on  high  above  all  nations 
of  the  earth.  Blessed  shalt  thou  be  in  the 
city,  and  blessed  shalt  thou  be  in  the  field. 
The  Lord  shall  cause  thine  enemies  that  rise 
up  against  thee  to  be  smitten  before  thy 
face;  they  shall  come  out  against  thee  one 
way,  and  shall  flee  before  thee  seven  ways." 
Disobedience  shall  be  followed  by  corre- 
sponding maledictions  and  disasters :  "  The 
Lord  shall  smite  thee  with  a  consumption, 
and  with  a  fever,  and  with  a  fiery  heat,  and 
with  the  sword,  and  they  shall  pursue  thee 
until  thou  perish." 

Accordingly,  when  the  friends  of  Job 
came  out  and  found  him  covered  with  boils 
from  the  crown  of  his  head  to  the  soles  of 
his  feet,  they  said,  "Job,  what  have  you 
done?  What  fearful  sin  have  you  commit- 
ted?" And  when  Job  replied  that  he  had 

63 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

done  nothing :  that  so  far  as  he  knew  he  had 
lived  blamelessly  in  the  obedience  of  God, 
they  could  not  believe  it.  They  saw  in  his 
condition  the  sure  proof  of  wrong-doing, 
and  they  pursued  him  with  accusations  to 
find  out  what  the  wrong-doing  was. 

So  also  in  the  New  Testament,  when  the 
tower  fell  in  Siloam  and  killed  a  number  of 
by-standers,  the  immediate  inference  of  the 
neighbours  was  that  these  were  the  worst 
sinners  in  the  place.  The  discriminating 
stones  had  selected  them  for  punishment. 
According  to  the  common  theory  of  the 
meaning  of  pain  the  stones  must  fall  upon 
the  heads  of  the  most  grievous  offenders. 
Even  to  this  day,  a  great  disaster, —  a  fire,  a 
flood,  an  earthquake,  a  shipwreck, —  dis- 
closes the  fact  that  this  idea  of  the  relation 
of  God  to  the  world's  pain  still  continues. 

The  theory  is  confirmed  by  various  facts 
of  human  life.  It  is  the  foundation  of  many 
very  sensible  reflections  upon  the  course  of 
the  world,  in  the  book  of  Proverbs.  "  Be- 
hold, the  righteous  shall  be  recompensed  in 
the  earth,  much  more  the  wicked  and  the 
sinners."  They  shall  be  rewarded  and  pun- 
ished "  in  the  earth,"  here  in  their  own  life- 
64 


GOD  AND  THE  WORLD'S  PAIN 

time,  by  prosperity  and  by  adversity.  The 
thing  is  daily  verified  in  the  case  of  the 
moral  qualities  upon  which  the  book  of 
Proverbs  lays  the  greatest  stress;  for  these 
are  the  virtues  of  honesty,  of  thrift,  of  indus- 
try, of  diligence.  "  The  way  of  the  slothful 
man  is  a  hedge  of  thorns,  but  the  way  of 
the  righteous  is  made  plain.''  It  is,  indeed. 
"  I  went  by  the  field  of  the  slothful,  and  by 
the  vineyard  of  the  man  void  of  understand- 
ing; and  lo,  it  was  all  grown  over  with 
thorns,  and  nettles  had  covered  the  face 
thereof,  and  the  stone  wall  thereof  was 
broken  down.  Then  I  saw,  and  considered  it 
well.  I  looked  upon  it  and  received  instruc- 
tion. Yet  a  little  sleep,  a  little  slumber,  a 
little  folding  of  the  hands  to  sleep :  so  shall 
thy  poverty  come  as  one  that  travelleth,  and 
thy  want  as  an  armed  man." 

But  the  coming  of  want  as  an  armed  man 
cannot  always  be  so  easily  explained.  The 
poverty  of  the  abandoned  farm  may  be  due 
not  to  the  sloth  of  the  farmer  but  to  the  dep- 
redations of  the  armed  man.  The  desolate 
fields  of  Belgium  and  France,  where  nettles 
cover  the  face  thereof  and  the  stone  walls 
are  broken  down,  are  not  accounted  for  by 

65 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

the  philosophy  of  the  book  of  Proverbs,  nor 
by  the  theology  of  the  book  of  Deuteron- 
omy. The  explanation  of  the  pain  of  the 
world  by  the  assertion  that  he  who  suffers 
brought  his  suffering  upon  himself  inter- 
prets a  part  of  the  problem  of  evil,  but  only 
a  small  part. 

The  Old  Testament  people  realised  this. 
They  saw  that  the  doctrine  of  pain  as  pun- 
ishment did  not  account  for  the  whole  of  ex- 
perience, and  they  tried  in  several  ways  to 
bring  the  justice  of  God  and  the  facts  of  life 
together. 

They  said,  It  is  true  that  the  sinners  are 
sometimes  prosperous  and  the  saints  suffer, 
but  these  conditions  are  temporary,  "  I  was 
grieved  at  the  wicked,"  says  a  psalmist,  "  I 
do  also  see  the  ungodly  in  such  prosperity. 
They  come  in  no  misfortune  like  other  folk, 
neither  are  they  plagued  like  other  men. 
Then  thought  I  to  understand  this,  but  it  was 
too  hard  for  me,  until  I  went  into  the  sanc- 
tuary of  God,  then  understood  I  the  end  of 
these  men ;  namely,  how  thou  dost  set  them 
in  slippery  places,  and  castest  them  down, 
and  destroyest  them."  For  the  moment,  the 
bad  enjoy  the  riches  which  they  have  gained 
66 


GOD  AND  THE  WORLD^S  PAIN 

by  plundering  the  good ;  but  wait,  the  God  of 
justice  will  change  all  that.  '*  Fret  not  thy- 
self because  of  the  ungodly,  neither  be  thou 
envious  against  the  evil  doers ;  for  they  shall 
soon  be  cut  down  like  the  grass,  and  be  with- 
ered even  as  the  green  herb." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  while  some 
of  the  evil-doers  are  cut  down  like  the  grass, 
many  more  go  on  and  prosper.  They  may 
miss  the  best  joys  of  life,  but  we  can  only 
guess  at  that.  The  plain  fact  is  that  they 
keep  the  money  which  they  gained  by  evil 
doing,  and  add  more  to  it,  and  live  in  luxury 
all  their  days.  Meanwhile  the  defrauded 
saints  get  nothing  back,  and  die  poor.  Over 
the  hopeless  ruins  of  the  houses  of  the  inno- 
cent the  army  of  invasion  marches  victor- 
ious. "Vengeance  is  mine,  I  will  repay, 
saith  the  Lord  " ;  we  wish  that,  until  our  wish 
becomes  a  curse,  but  nothing  happens.  We 
cannot  make  reprisal,  and  God  does  not.  The 
assertion  as  a  general  principle  that  the 
material  prosperity  of  the  wicked  is  tem- 
porary, may  be  made,  as  the  psalmist  said,  in 
the  sanctuary  of  God,  where  the  harsh  con- 
tradictions of  the  world  are  shut  out,  and  in 
the  stillness  we  think  of  life  as  it  ought  to  be, 

67 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

but  it  cannot  endure  the  test  of  actual  expe- 
rience. 

So  then  they  said,  It  may  be  that  the  sin 
which  brings  adversity  on  men  was  com- 
mitted not  by  them  but  by  their  ancestors. 
Both  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel,  who  with  their 
own  eyes  saw  the  righteous  forsaken,  quote 
a  proverb  which  was  current  in  their  time : 
"  The  fathers  have  eaten  sour  grapes,  and 
the  children's  teeth  are  set  on  edge."  The 
saying  has  a  basis  in  the  order  of  things.  The 
sins  of  the  fathers  are  visited  upon  the  chil- 
dren. The  children  are  poor  because  the 
fathers  were  poor,  and  weak  because  the 
fathers  were  weak.  The  doctrine  of  heredity 
is  no  longer  accounted  an  adequate  explan- 
ation of  the  general  state  of  human  affairs, 
but  it  does  explain  some  of  them.  The 
prophets  rejected  it  because  it  seemed  to 
them  to  break  down  the  foundation  of  indi- 
vidual responsibility.  They  said,  "  Every 
one  shall  die  for  his  ow^n  iniquity ;  every  man 
that  eateth  the  sour  grape,  his  teeth  shall  be 
set  on  edge."  The  essential  discrediting  of 
the  theory,  however,  is  in  the  impossibility 
of  proving  it.  It  is  like  the  Buddhist  doctrine 
that  we  suffer  not  for  any  wrong  which  we 
68 


GOD  AND  THE  WORLD'S  PAIN 

do,  but  for  some  wrong  which  we  did  before 
we  were  born,  in  a  previous  state  of  exist- 
ence. It  is  not  so  much  an  explanation  as  an 
evasion  of  the  apparent  injustice  of  life. 

The  same  objection  holds  against  another 
endeavour  of  the  Old  Testament  people  to 
solve  the  problem  of  pain.  The  writer  of  the 
prose  parts  of  the  book  of  Job  said  that  evil 
comes  into  the  world  by  the  suggestion  and 
action  of  the  devil,  A  door  is  opened  into 
heaven,  and  he  beholds  a  celestial  conference 
in  session,  and  Satan  proposes  the  smiting  of 
Job  by  way  of  experiment,  to  see  how  he  will 
take  it.  Satan  is  permitted  to  smite  Job.  He 
spoils  his  goods,  he  kills  his  children,  he  puts 
upon  him  the  burden  of  great  pain.  Thus  the 
tragedy  begins.  The  inference  is  that  many 
of  the  afflictions  of  the  righteous  have  some 
such  infernal  origin. 

The  devil  has  almost  disappeared  from  our 
theology.  He  used  to  be  brought  out  often 
for  the  scaring  of  sinners.  Nowadays,  per- 
haps because  the  sinners  are  no  longer  scared 
so  easily,  or  because  we  have  outgrown  a 
doctrine  which  taught  us  to  believe  in  two 
gods,  one  good  and  the  other  bad,  the  devil 
has  become  hardly  more  than  a  convenient 

69 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

and  picturesque  synonym  for  the  power  of 
evil.  It  is  true  that  as  we  read  the  war  news 
in  the  daily  papers,  and  recall  the  inhuman 
and  incredible  things  which  have  been  done 
since  the  war  began,  the  old  doctrine  of  the 
devil  seems  a  reasonable  explanation.  How 
could  honest  and  friendly  citizens  be  so 
transformed  by  putting  them  into  uniform, 
unless  they  were  possessed  of  the  devil?  The 
doctrine  fails,  however,  because  we  cannot 
prove  it.  It  retreats  into  those  invisible  re- 
gions whither  we  cannot  follow  it. 

The  unsolved  problem  of  the  good  God 
and  the  bad  world  confronted  the  prophet 
Habakkuk  in  the  midst  of  a  world  at  war. 

Out  of  Babylon  came  the  Chaldeans,  with 
their  faces  toward  the  Great  Sea,  and  be- 
tween them  and  Egypt  lay  the  little  kingdom 
of  the  Jews.  The  whole  earth  shook  beneath 
them.  Death  and  destruction  came  with 
them.  Civilisation  and  religion  seemed  alike 
in  peril.  And  God  was  silent.  In  the  soul  of 
the  prophet,  above  the  terror  of  the  impend- 
ing war,  was  a  fearful  perplexity,  deepening 
into  doubt.  For  him  the  supreme  tragedy 
was  his  inability  to  bring  the  situation  into 
accord  with  the  just  government  of  God. 
70 


GOD  AND  THE  WORLD'S  PAIN 

The  march  of  the  invading  army,  the  spoiling 
of  towns,  the  desecration  of  sanctuaries,  the 
destruction  of  the  patient  work  of  centuries, 
the  loss  of  life,  he  could  endure ;  but  it  seemed 
to  him  that  with  these  lamentable  losses  he 
had  lost  God  also.  How  could  the  justice  of 
God,  the  love  of  God,  the  very  being  of  God, 
be  consistent  with  these  tragedies?  He  re- 
peated the  persistent  question  of  the  psalm, 
"  Why  standest  thou  so  far  off,  O  Lord,  and 
hidest  thy  face  in  the  needful  time  of  trou- 
ble? "  "  O  Lord,  how  long  shall  I  cry,  and 
thou  wilt  not  hear,  even  cry  unto  thee  of  vio- 
lence, and  thou  wilt  not  save?  "  "  Thou  art 
of  purer  eyes,"  he  says,  "  than  to  behold  evil, 
and  canst  not  look  upon  iniquity" — canst 
not  look  upon  it  with  approval,  or  with  indif- 
ference, or  even  with  patience.  "Where- 
fore lookest  thou  [passive  and  silent]  upon 
them  that  deal  treacherously,  and  boldest 
not  thy  tongue  when  the  wicked  devoureth 
the  man  that  is  more  righteous  than  he?  " 

It  is  our  own  problem.  It  is  the  question 
which  confronts  us  to-day  in  sight  of  Ar- 
menia, and  Serbia,  and  Poland,  and  Belgium, 
and  the  ruined  fields  of  France.  Habakkuk 
says,  "  I  will  stand  upon  my  watch,  and  set 

71 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

me  upon  my  tower,  and  will  look  forth  to  see 
what  he  will  speak  with  me,  and  what  I  shall 
answer  concerning  my  complaint.  And  the 
Lord  answered  me,  and  said,  Write  the  vi- 
sion, and  make  it  plain  upon  tablets  that  he 
may  run  that  readeth  it.  The  righteous  shall 
live  in  his  faithfulness/'  The  righteous  finds 
his  true  life  in  his  own  soul,  indestructible, 
safe  from  all  invading  armies,  unharmed  by 
any  ills  of  war.  He  lives  in  his  faithfulness 
to  the  truth,  in  his  constant  obedience  to 
God,  in  his  allegiance  to  his  best  ideals. 

The  watch-tower  of  the  prophet  is  no  sun- 
swept  parapet  on  the  broad  roof  of  a  strong 
castle.  It  is  lifted  only  a  little  way  above  the 
stricken  field,  and  the  dust  and  smoke  of  bat- 
tle are  so  blown  against  it  that  the  watcher 
gets  only  glimpses  of  the  situation.  But 
what  he  sees  is  true.  Here,  while  the  earth 
quakes  about  him,  he  stands  firm.  The  idea 
that  God  rewards  the  good  with  material 
blessings  and  punishes  the  bad  with  material 
defeat,  is  only  partially  true.  The  other  ex- 
planations of  the  world's  pain  are  not  so  true 
as  that.  But  this  is  true :  that  the  best  of  life 
is  beyond  this  touch  of  tribulation.  That 
for  which  we  care  most,  and  for  which  we 
73 


GOD  AND  THE  WORLD'S  PAIN 

believe  God  cares  supremely,  cannot  be 
counted,  cannot  be  measured,  cannot  be  ex- 
pressed in  terms  of  possession.  The  best  of 
life  is  separate  from  lands  and  houses,  and 
art  and  architecture,  and  peace  and  pros- 
perity, even  from  life  itself.  It  is  truth,  and 
honour,  and  faithfulness  and  self-sacrifice, 
and  love  which  is  stronger  than  death.  Out 
of  the  lower  levels,  and  the  selfish  ambi- 
tions, and  the  lesser  ways  of  living  we  are 
uplifted,  even  by  the  pain  of  war,  to  these 
high  places,  eternal  in  the  heavens. 


73 


PAIN  AND  THE  WORLD'S 
PROGRESS 

He  was  wounded  for  our  transgressions,  he  was 
bruised  for  our  iniquities;  the  chastisement  of  our 
peace  was  upon  him;  and  with  his  stripes  we  are 
healed.  Isaiah  53:5. 

'S  the  queen's  treasurer  read  this  page 
aloud  to  himself,  he  looked  up  and  saw 
the  evangelist  Philip,  and,  perceiving  him  to 
be  a  man  of  God,  he  asked.  Of  whom  speak- 
eth  the  prophet  this?  Philip,  in  reply,  ex- 
pounded the  passage  in  terms  of  the  sacrifi- 
cial death  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  it  was  who 
was  led  as  a  sheep  to  the  slaughter,  and  his 
life  taken  from  the  earth.  He  was  wounded 
for  our  transgressions,  and  bruised  for  our 
iniquities;  the  chastisement  of  our  peace 
was  upon  him,  and  with  his  stripes  we  are 
healed.  It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether  the 
prophet,  as  he  spoke  of  the  Suffering  Ser- 
vant of  the  Lord,  had  in  mind  some  man, 
then  living  or  yet  to  come,  or  was  thinking 
of  the  whole  people  of  God,  suffering  for  the 

74 


PAIN  AND  WORLD'S  PROGRESS 

sake  o£  humanity,  whose  pain  is  for  the  ac- 
complishment of  our  peace. 

It  does  not  greatly  matter.  That  the 
prophetic  vision  found  fulfilment,  centuries 
after,  in  Jesus  Christ,  is  plain  enough.  "  He 
is  the  very  Paschal  Lamb,  which  was  offered 
for  us,  and  hath  taken  away  the  sin  of  the 
world;  who  by  his  death  hath  destroyed 
death,  and  by  his  rising  to  life  again  hath 
restored  to  us  everlasting  life."  It  is  plain 
also  that  the  vision  has  been  fulfilled  so  many 
times,  under  so  many  different  circum- 
stances, that  it  refers  not  so  much  to  any 
single  instance  as  to  an  eternal  principle  of 
life.  It  is  true  always,  and  the  truth  of  it  is 
illustrated  every  day,  that  suffering  is  a  form 
of  service,  and  that  pain  is  one  of  the  efficient 
elements  of  progress. 

The  fact  is  that  the  world  is  made  that 
way.  The  world  is  so  made,  and  we  are  in  it 
upon  such  conditions,  that  obedience  is  es- 
sential to  happiness.  It  is  necessary  to  obey 
the  laws  of  the  physical  universe  in  order  to 
be  well;  it  is  necessary  to  obey  the  moral 
laws  in  order  to  be  good.  Righteousness  and 
health,  individual  and  general,  are  the  goals 
of  progress.  This  is  what  we  desire  for  our- 

75 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

selves  and  for  all  men,  that  we  may  each  of 
us  have  a  sound  body  and  a  clear  conscience. 
But  before  we  can  obey  the  physical  and 
moral  laws  we  must  know  what  they  are. 
And  they  are  discovered  by  experience,  by 
hard  experience. 

Every  race,  every  generation,  every  one 
of  us,  inherits  from  the  past  a  great  amount 
of  knowledge  which  has  been  laboriously 
and  painfully  learned.  Some  of  it  we  have  to 
learn  over  again  because  we  are  not  quite 
convinced  of  the  wisdom  of  our  elders.  But 
we  are  not  only  to  enter  into  this  knowledge, 
we  are  to  add  to  it.  We  are  to  increase  the 
amount  of  ascertained  and  accepted  knowl- 
edge of  the  difference  between  good  and  evil. 
It  is  the  business  of  every  generation  to  say 
to  those  who  come  after:  Here  is  something 
which  we  have  found  out;  we  have  learned 
that  such  and  such  a  thing,  about  which  there 
used  to  be  confusion  of  mind,  is  bad.  It  may 
be  slavery,  it  may  be  autocratic  government, 
it  may  be  the  settlement  of  international  dif- 
ferences by  war:  no  matter.  This  thing  is 
bad.  We  have  put  it  out.  We  have  labelled 
it  "  Poison." 

This  is  what  we  mean  by  progress, —  this 
76 


PAIN  AND  WORLD'S  PROGRESS 

gradual  addition  to  the  sum  total  of  acquired 
knowledge,  this  advance  through  experience 
into  better  ways  of  living.  It  is  gained  by 
pain.  Even  of  the  Supreme  Master  of  the 
spiritual  life  it  is  said  that  he  learned  obe- 
dience by  the  things  which  he  suffered. 
Even  for  him  there  was  no  other  way. 
"  Though  he  were  a  Son,  yet  learned  he  obe- 
dience by  the  things  which  he  suffered."  It 
is  a  principle  of  life. 

The  physical  world  is  so  ordered  that  its 
laws  are  learned  by  processes  of  penalty. 
There  is  no  discrimination.  No  allowances 
are  made  either  for  saints  or  for  fools.  The 
sun  shines  and  the  rain  falls  on  the  evil  and 
on  the  good,  and  the  same  is  true  of  the  fire 
and  of  the  flood.  We  may  imagine  different 
conditions,  and  shut  our  eyes  to  contradict- 
ing facts.  We  may  rebel  with  the  pessimist, 
and  blaspheme  the  world.  We  may  sigh  with 
the  poet, 

"  Ah  Love!  could  you  and  I  with  Him  conspire 
To  grasp  this  sorry  Scheme  of  Things  entire. 
Would  we  not  shatter  it  to  bits  —  and  then 
Remould  it  nearer  to  the  Heart's  Desire!" 

We  know  very  well,  however,  that  the  ac- 
tual ordering  of  our  life  is  a  wise  ordering. 

77 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

We  can  see  that.  It  might  indeed  be  pleas- 
ant to  have  the  law  of  gravitation  pull  sud- 
denly and  hard  on  a  burglar  climbing  into  a 
second-story  window,  and  deal  very  gently 
with  a  small  child  leaning  perilously  out ;  but 
such  a  difference  would  put  us  to  intellectual 
confusion.  What  we  have,  as  it  is,  is  a  world 
on  which  we  may  rely,  and  which  we  may 
understand  more  and  more,  and  to  which  we 
are  therefore  able  to  adjust  ourselves.  It  is 
a  world  in  which  there  are  absolute  scien- 
tific values.  Under  such  conditions  progress 
is  possible.  For  if  the  well-being  of  the  body 
of  man  depends  on  obedience  to  the  laws  of 
nature,  it  is  necessary  that  those  laws  should 
be  so  impartial  and  unchanging  that  we  may 
depend  upon  them. 

The  truth  is  that  the  natural  laws  of  God, 
even  when  they  seem  for  the  moment  to  ac- 
complish nothing  but  the  pain  of  man,  are 
found  to  be  impelling  influences  toward 
progress. 

Take,  for  example,  the  desolation  and 
tragedy  of  drought.  The  heaven  gives  no 
rain,  the  sun  shines  with  pitiless  heat,  the 
earth  is  dried  up  and  yields  no  fruit,  and  peo- 
ple starve.  A  dreadful  situation !  What  shall 
78 


PAIN  AND  WORLD'S  PROGRESS 

we  say  of  a  world  in  which  the  faithful  pray 
and  there  is  no  answer,  and  little  children 
die  for  lack  of  food?  There  is  a  reasonable 
theory  that  in  just  such  pain  as  this  the  civi- 
lisation of  the  race  got  its  first  great  start. 
Men  had  emerged  from  the  savagery  of  the 
wild  forests,  and  had  encamped  upon  the 
grass  lands  of  northern  Arabia  and  of  south- 
em  Russia.  It  was  a  place  for  the  domestica- 
tion of  flocks  and  herds,  and  for  the  begin- 
nings of  human  society.  The  primitive  peo- 
ple liked  it,  and  were  contented  with  it.  Hav- 
ing come  that  brief  distance  on  the  long  road 
of  progress,  they  were  satisfied  to  sit  down 
and  go  no  farther.  They  were  driven  out  by 
drought.  Bad  seasons  made  the  pleasant 
grass-lands  uninhabitable.  Thereupon  some 
of  the  people  of  northern  Arabia  crossed 
over  into  Egypt  and  settled  the  valley  of  the 
Nile ;  others  went  up  and  settled  the  valleys 
of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates.  In  like  man- 
ner, some  of  the  people  of  the  steppes  of  Rus- 
sia moved  down  into  Greece,  others  into 
India.  Thus  the  drought,  which  seemed  for 
the  moment  to  block  the  progress  of  the 
race,  helped  it  on. 

As  in  the  physical  world,  so  in  the  moral. 

79 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

The  happiness  of  man  consists  in  conformity 
to  the  will  of  God.  But  before  the  will  of  God 
is  done,  two  things  are  necessary.  It  is 
necessary  that  we  should  know  what  the  will 
of  God  is ;  it  is  also  necessary  that  we  should 
realise  that  our  happiness  depends  on  our 
obedience. 

Slowly,  the  race  learns  by  experience  what 
the  will  of  God  is.  For  example,  there  was  a 
time  when  the  divine  will  was  supposed  not 
only  to  sanction  but  to  command  the  de- 
struction of  our  enemies.  Out  went  the  Is- 
raelites, led  by  the  prophet  Elisha,  into  the 
land  of  Moab,  and  this  is  what  they  did: 
"  They  smote  the  Moabites,  so  that  they  fled 
before  them,"  and  "  they  went  forward  smit- 
ing the  Moabites,  even  in  their  own  country. 
And  they  beat  down  the  cities,  and  on  every 
good  piece  of  land  cast  every  man  his  stone 
and  filled  it;  and  they  stopped  all  the  wells 
of  water,  and  felled  all  the  good  trees."  That 
was  their  honest  idea  of  the  will  of  God. 
Even  the  neighbouring  heathen  were  scan- 
dalised and  horrified  by  it.  "  There  was 
great  indignation  against  Israel " ;  so  that 
even  the  Israelites  began  to  suspect  that 
they  had  made  a  mistake  as  to  the  divine 
80 


PAIN  AND  WORLD'S  PROGRESS 

will ;  "  and  they  returned  to  their  own  land  " ; 
having,  perhaps,  learned  something.  By 
hard  experience,  sometimes  through  pain  of 
our  neighbours,  but  more  often  through  pain 
of  our  own  souls  and  bodies,  we  learn  how 
God  would  have  us  live. 

This  is  a  slow  lesson,  but  more  slowly  still 
do  we  learn  that  our  happiness  depends  on 
our  obedience.  We  assent  to  the  statement. 
That  is  easy.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however, 
even  the  best  of  us  sometimes  act  as  if  we 
were  in  doubt  about  it.  And  mankind  in  gen- 
eral is  still  unconvinced.  We  all  desire  ear- 
nestly to  be  happy,  but  a  great  number  of 
people  are  of  the  opinion  that  more  pleasure 
is  to  be  had  by  breaking  the  moral  law  than 
by  keeping  it.  The  narrow  way  to  happiness 
is  entered  by  the  gate  of  obedience,  and  there 
is  a  guide-post  by  the  gate  stating  that  fact 
plainly  in  all  the  languages  of  the  earth ;  but 
people  are  forever  trying  other  paths,  hoping 
to  get  there  by  a  shorter  way. 

Our  life  is  so  ordered  that  these  exper- 
iments are  permitted.  Not  only  do  we  learn 
by  experience  what  the  will  of  God  is,  but 
we  learn  by  the  same  process  of  instruction 
that  our  welfare  consists  in  doing  it.  It  is 

8i 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

often  a  bitter  lesson.  In  the  distress  and 
tragedy  of  it,  in  all  ages,  men  say.  Why  does 
not  God  make  the  wrong  choice  impossible? 
Here,  for  example,  is  the  pestilence  of  war. 
We  thought  that  we  had  put  it  down.  We 
thought  that  at  last  we  had  become  so  civi- 
lised and  so  Christian  that  disputes  would 
be  argued  by  force  of  blows  only  in  the  back 
streets  of  the  world,  only  by  men  of  savage 
tribes,  ignorant  and  belated,  still  near  of  kin 
to  the  animals  of  the  jungle,  not  by  gentle- 
men, not  by  educated  and  religious  people. 
In  our  disappointment,  we  ask,  not  only  in 
grief  but  in  grave  doubt.  Why  does  God 
allow  it?  Is  he  good,  but  not  strong  enough? 
or  is  he  strong,  but  not  good  enough,  to  stop 
it? 

The  answer  is  that  God,  who  made  the 
world  and  us,  has  so  ordered  our  life  that 
man  proceeds  from  the  worse  to  the  better 
by  the  discipline  of  experiment.  It  was  in 
accordance  with  our  best  knowledge  of  God 
and  of  man  that  the  Hebrews  imagined  the 
opportunity  of  a  wrong  choice  in  the  Garden 
of  Eden.  Man  had  to  have  the  chance  to 
choose  wrong  in  order  that  his  right  choice 
might  be  the  expression  not  of  a  will  with- 
82 


PAIN  AND  WORLD'S  PROGRESS 

out  him,  but  of  his  own  will  within  him.  By 
this  choice  he  became  man.  Thus  his  virtues 
became  manly  virtues.  A  world  without  lib- 
erty of  choice  would  be  a  world  of  slaves  or 
imbeciles.  It  would  be  a  good  world,  because 
it  would  be  compelled  to  be  good:  there 
would  be  no  alternative.  And  being  thus 
good,  it  would  be  spared  much  of  the  pain 
which  now  besets  us.  It  would  be  a  world  of 
peace.  But  peace  at  what  a  price!  Man 
would  have  the  blessing  of  peace  at  the  cost 
of  his  own  soul.  Such  a  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem of  pain  is  like  a  sudden  hard  blow  on  the 
head,  after  which  we  shall  have  no  worry 
and  no  conscience,  no  will  and  no  manhood, 
and  shall  sit  smiling  vacantly  at  the  empty 
sky.  Anything  is  better  than  that. 

It  is  true  that,  after  all  is  said,  pain  is  in- 
volved in  mystery,  and  there  are  questions 
which  we  cannot  answer.  The  long  dia- 
logues of  the  book  of  Job  end  here.  God 
speaks  to  the  disputants  in  a  majestic  re- 
minder of  their  own  inevitable  ignorance. 
"  Where  wast  thou  when  I  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  the  earth,  when  the  morning  stars 
sang  together,  and  all  the  sons  of  God 
shouted  for  joy?  Hast  thou  entered  into  the 

83 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

springs  of  the  sea?  hast  thou  perceived  the 
breadth  of  the  earth?  have  the  gates  of  death 
been  opened  unto  thee?  "  We  have  to  con- 
fess that  the  order  and  purpose  of  the  world, 
of  which  pain  is  a  detail,  are  beyond  our  un- 
derstanding. We  are  like  the  footsoldiers  in 
the  midst  of  the  battle,  who  see  that  which 
is  immediately  about  them,  but  do  not  know 
how  the  great  day  goes,  whether  in  victory 
or  in  defeat.  We  are  like  the  passers-by  who 
see  beside  the  road  great  piles  of  stone  and 
lumber,  but  cannot  tell  whether  they  mean 
destruction  or  construction.  If  we  guess  that 
some  sort  of  construction  is  in  progress,  we 
do  not  know  the  plan,  or  how  this  apparently 
hopeless  disorder  shall  contribute  to  it. 
Every  calamity,  every  war,  finds  us  confront- 
ing the  world  in  this  perplexity. 

But  under  such  conditions,  our  thoughts 
may  take  one  or  other  of  two  directions.  We 
may  say,  It  is  all  a  hopeless,  tragic,  awful 
muddle,  which  nobody  can  understand.  Or 
we  may  say.  Somewhere,  overlooking  this 
field  of  battle,  there  is  a  commander  in  whose 
purposes  all  these  details  are  gathered  up 
and  have  their  place;  somewhere,  back  of 
these  heaps  of  wood  and  stone,  there  is  an 
84 


PAIN  AND  WORLD^S  PROGRESS 

architect  in  whose  plans  they  are  all  marked 
and  have  their  use.  I  do  not  understand  it; 
it  all  looks  blind  to  me ;  but  he  knows. 

Even  in  our  ignorance,  we  are  able  to  see 
that  pain  is  a  contributing  fact  in  progress. 
Sometimes  when  the  sky  is  more  than 
usually  clear,  or  the  event  is  so  far  off  that 
we  can  see  it  in  completion,  the  sequence  and 
significance  are  plain.  St.  Stephen,  in  the  old 
time,  is  stoned.  There  he  stands,  young, 
strong,  full  of  ability,  full  of  promise,  his  face 
like  the  face  of  an  angel,  and  they  stone  him 
to  death.  Horrible!  But  there  are  unex- 
pected results.  The  disciples  are  scattered. 
Away  they  go,  fleeing  for  their  lives.  But  as 
they  go,  they  preach  the  gospel.  At  once,  the 
Christian  mission  widens  into  a  new  activity. 
Under  the  conditions  of  a  hospitable  Jerusa- 
lem, the  Christian  fraternity  might  have  set- 
tled down  to  a  quiet  life  of  compromise,  and 
so  have  disappeared.  Out  of  the  stones 
which  killed  Stephen  the  disciples  began  the 
building  of  the  Christian  church. 

It  shows  the  same  relation  between  pain 
and  progress  which  appears  in  the  results 
of  the  successive  invasions  of  Judea  by 
Assyrians,  Chaldeans,  Persians,  Greeks  and 

85 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

Romans.  These  invasions  were  interpreted 
by  generations  of  good  people  in  terms  of 
doubt  and  despair.  They  seemed  to  prove 
that  God  had  forsaken  his  people.  What 
they  did,  however,  was  to  scatter  the  Jews 
over  the  face  of  the  earth.  They  went  every- 
where, preaching  that  higher  truth  and  liv- 
ing that  better  life,  which  they  were  inclined 
to  regard  as  a  racial  privilege  rather  than  as 
a  summons  to  a  world-wide  mission. 

The  same  thing  appears  in  the  relation  be- 
tween religious  persecution  and  the  colonis- 
ation of  this  continent.  Why  did  the  good 
God  permit  the  wars  which  followed  the 
Reformation?  Why  did  he  suffer  men  in  his 
name  to  work  the  works  of  the  devil?  These 
questions  found  no  satisfying  answers  in  the 
1 6th  and  17th  centuries ;  and  we  are  far  from 
satisfied  with  the  answers  which  we  propose 
to  them  to-day.  But  this,  at  least,  we  see: 
that  over  the  ocean,  in  consequence  of  this 
injustice  and  cruelty,  came  the  men  who  es- 
tablished our  American  institutions.  What 
Puritan  of  them  all  would  have  faced  the 
perils  of  the  sea  and  the  perils  of  the  shore  if 
he  had  been  well-treated  in  England?  Out 
they  came,  as  the  friends  of  Stephen  fled  in 
86 


PAIN  AND  WORLD'S  PROGRESS 

the  old  time.  Let  us  remember  that,  when 
the  breaking  of  peace  seems  to  us  the  build- 
ing of  a  barrier  across  the  plans  of  God.  We 
were  born  under  the  stormy  skies  of  a  broken 
peace.  Intolerance  was  our  father,  persecu- 
tion was  our  mother.  Out  of  evil  came  our 
good,  out  of  pain  our  progress. 

The  physical  world  and  the  moral  world, 
as  they  actually  are,  involve  the  fact  of  pain. 
Given  these  two  conditions  of  life,  the  uni- 
formity of  natural  law  and  the  liberty  of 
human  will,  and  pain  is  inevitable.  They  are 
worth  the  price.  The  uniformity  of  natural 
law  is  the  basis  of  our  reason,  the  liberty  of 
human  will  is  the  basis  of  our  righteousness. 
On  these  conditions  we  exist.  On  these  con- 
ditions we  progress.  For  the  advance  of  man 
is  a  process  of  adjustment;  we  adjust  our- 
selves to  this  physical  and  moral  world  in 
which  we  live.  Pain  shows  where  the  ad- 
justment is  not  yet  complete.  It  summons 
our  energies  to  make  the  adjustment  right. 

Thus  pain  involves  not  only  suffering  but 
service.  They  on  whom  it  comes  ought  not 
to  feel  that  they  are  caught  by  the  universal 
curse,  but  that  their  distress  is  a  contribution 
to  the  cause  of  progress.  They  may  be  like 

87 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

the  people  on  whom  fell  the  tragedies  of  the 
drought,  or  the  invasion,  or  the  persecution, 
by  which  men  were  driven  out  of  conditions 
of  comfort  into  the  undertaking  of  a  great 
mission.  Or  their  suffering,  like  that  of  our 
brethren  under  the  storm  of  war,  may  be  the 
last  convincing  and  compelling  revelation  of 
evils  of  nationalism,  of  militarism,  of  materi- 
alism, with  which  the  world  can  be  no  longer 
patient.  Or  the  laying  down  of  their  lives 
may  be  an  efficient  means  whereby  war  shall 
be  abolished,  and  government  of  the  people, 
by  the  people,  and  for  the  people  shall  be 
securely  established  in  the  earth.  By  their 
stripes  we  are  healed.  By  their  pain  another 
step  is  taken  in  the  progress  of  the  world. 


88 


THE  EVERLASTING  VITALITY 
OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

Nevertheless  we,  according  to  his  promise,  look  for 
new  heavens  and  a  new  earth  wherein  dwelleth 
righteousness.  II  Peter  3:13. 

^^^HERE  was  no  sign  of  the  fulfilment  of 
^^  the  promise.  The  old  heavens  contin- 
ued overhead,  a  grey  sky,  heavy  with  threat- 
ened clouds;  and  the  old  earth  underfoot 
was  as  much  the  residence  of  sin  and  sorrow 
as  it  had  ever  been. 

They  had  expected  a  speedy  return  of  the 
Lord  Christ  to  make  all  things  new,  but  the 
months  had  lengthened  into  years,  and  noth- 
ing had  happened.  There  was  no  apparent 
likelihood  that  anything  would  happen.  The 
writer  of  the  epistle  says  that  scoffers  were 
asking,  "  Where  is  the  promise  of  his  com- 
ing? "  and  were  saying  that  "since  the 
fathers  fell  asleep  all  things  continue  as  they 
were  from  the  beginning  of  the  creation." 
But  the  difficulty  of  the  situation  must  have 

89 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

been  plain  to  others  beside  scoffers.  There 
must  have  been  devout  and  faithful  people 
who  were  sorely  perplexed  by  the  fact  that 
the  Christian  religion  seemed  to  make  no 
progress  toward  the  accomplishment  of  any 
great  change  in  human  life.  Indeed,  on  the 
whole,  things  appeared  to  be  worse  rather 
than  better.  But  they  kept  their  faith. 
"  Nevertheless,"  they  said,  "  we,  according 
to  his  promise,  look  for  new  heavens  and  a 
new  earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness." 

For  already,  in  the  short  history  of  the 
Christian  religion,  there  had  been  expe- 
rience of  the  fact  of  failure,  and  experience 
also  of  the  translation  of  failure  into  accom- 
plishment. The  word  "nevertheless"  had 
been  both  justified  and  glorified. 

The  Christian  religion  failed  when  the 
song  of  the  Christmas  angels  fell  into  silence, 
and  the  light  went  out  of  the  Christmas  sky. 
For  the  light  and  the  song  were  the  symbols 
of  a  splendid  promise  which  was  not  fulfilled. 
So,  at  least,  it  must  have  seemed  to  the  shep- 
herds and  the  wise  men.  They  went  home 
and  nothing  happened.  Years  passed,  and 
nothing  happened.  The  child  thus  welcomed 
into  the  world  was  never  heard  of  afterward, 
90 


THE  EVERLASTING  VITALITY 

so  far  as  the  wise  men  and  the  shepherds 
knew.  Indeed,  at  the  age  of  thirty,  he  seemed 
to  his  fellow-townsmen  of  Nazareth  so  ordi- 
nary a  person  that  when  they  heard  of  the 
stir  which  he  was  making  in  the  world  they 
could  not  believe  it. 

Nevertheless,  after  the  long  silence  and 
apparent  failure  of  the  promise  at  his  birth, 
he  stirred  the  world  indeed. 

Then  came  another  failure.  The  Christian 
religion  had  barely  begun,  when  the  founder 
of  it,  the  heart  of  it,  was  seized  and  put  to 
death.  The  high  hopes  of  his  followers  were 
frustrated.  We  hear  them  talking  three  days 
after  his  crucifixion,  and  they  speak  not  only 
of  him  but  of  their  faith  in  him  in  the  past 
tense.  "  We  trusted,"  they  said,  "  that  it  had 
been  he  which  should  have  delivered  Israel." 
That  hope  had  been  disappointed.  That 
bright  vision  had  completely  vanished;  not 
even  a  "  nevertheless  "  remained.  It  is  im- 
possible for  us  to  exaggerate  the  sense  of  ir- 
reparable defeat  which  filled  the  souls  of  the 
disciples  after  the  tragedy  of  Good  Friday. 
They  had  come  to  the  end  of  all  their  expec- 
tation. 

Then  suddenly  they  looked  not  for  new 

91 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

heavens  and  a  new  earth,  but  at  them.  There 
they  were :  the  earth  firm  with  the  everlast- 
ing solidity  of  the  planet,  and  the  heavens 
bright  as  with  the  constant  shining  of  the 
sun.  There  they  were,  realised,  the  new 
heavens  and  the  new  earth  wherein  dwelleth 
righteousness. 

This  divine  sequence, —  after  the  glory  of 
Christmas,  the  uneventful  and  disappointing 
monotony  of  thirty  obscure  years ;  after  the 
tragedy  of  Good  Friday,  the  victory  of  Eas- 
ter,—  interprets  for  our  understanding  and 
encouragement  the  whole  course  of  Chris- 
tian history.  It  takes  the  word  "  Neverthe- 
less," and  writes  it  on  the  cross,  writes  it  on 
the  blackest  pages  of  the  records  of  the  past, 
writes  it  to-day  on  the  battlefields  of  Eu- 
rope. 

For  example,  in  the  third  century,  when 
after  a  long  space  of  peace  another  persecu- 
tion was  suddenly  begun,  the  number  of 
apostates  was  so  great,  the  Christians  in 
every  city  so  crowded  one  upon  another  to 
deny  the  faith,  that  it  seemed  for  the  mo- 
ment as  if  there  were  no  saints  left.  The  peo- 
ple deserted  the  services  and  the  sacraments, 
and  forsook  Christ,  led  by  their  ministers. 
92 


THE  EVERLASTING  VITALITY 

That  was  an  appropriate  time  for  essays  on 
the  Failure  of  the  Church. 

Nevertheless,  the  Christian  religion  as- 
serted its  everlasting  vitality,  and  the 
church,  which  seemed  to  have  failed,  proved 
strong  enough  to  defy  successfully  the  com- 
bined strength  of  all  the  forces  of  the  em- 
pire. The  soldiers  who  had  conquered  the 
world  could  not  conquer  the  church.  Pres- 
ently the  emperor  Constantine  was  con- 
verted, and  Christianity  became  the  accepted 
religion. 

Then  the  Christians  began  to  fight  among 
themselves.  They  were  divided  by  their 
doctrinal  disagreements,  and  debated  not 
only  in  conventions  with  fierce  arguments, 
but  in  the  streets  with  clubs  and  in  the  fields 
with  swords.  The  world  was  filled  with  the 
clamour  of  Christian  contention.  Christians 
led  out  armies  against  Christians.  At  an 
election  of  a  bishop  of  Rome,  in  the  fourth 
century,  the  floor  of  the  Church  of  Santa 
Maria  Maggiore  was  found  to  be  strewn, 
after  the  proceedings  were  over,  with  the 
bodies  of  a  hundred  and  thirty-seven  dead 
electors.  Somebody,  a  year  or  two  ago, 
wrote  a  paper  in  a  magazine  on  the  Collapse 

93 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

of  the  Church.  He  had  in  mind  the  condition 
of  our  own  time !  It  was  like  the  headlines  in 
which  such  big  type  is  used  to  describe  a 
fight  in  a  back  street  that  there  is  nothing 
bigger  left  for  the  battles  of  a  great  war. 
Such  a  title  might  have  been  used  with  pro- 
priety in  the  fourth  century.  The  situation 
was  not  only  serious  but  desperate. 

Nevertheless,  it  was  a  strong  church 
which  out-rode  the  tremendous  storm  of  the 
barbarian  invasion,  and  came  to  the  summit 
of  secular  power  in  the  Middle  Ages.  It 
built  magnificent  cathedrals,  organised  mo- 
nastic orders,  sent  out  missions  which  con- 
verted races,  and  ruled  the  world.  And  rul- 
ing the  world,  it  lost  its  own  soul.  To  no 
period  of  history  may  the  titles.  The  Failure 
of  the  Church,  The  Collapse  of  the  Church, 
be  so  fitly  applied  as  to  those  days  when  the 
services  of  religion  were  most  splendid  and 
most  numerously  attended,  and  the  Church 
was  the  most  conspicuous  fact  in  human  life, 
—  and  faith  had  fallen  into  superstition,  and 
the  ministers  of  faith  had  fallen  into  im- 
morality. After  having  descended  into  that 
abyss,  and  climbed  up  again,  the  use  of  such 
large  words  as  "failure"  and  "collapse" 
94 


THE  EVERLASTING  VITALITY 

for  our  own  small  discouragements,  even  for 
the  contradictions  of  the  present  war,  shows 
a  lack  of  the  sense  of  proportion. 

Then  came  the  Reformation,  and  in  Eng- 
land the  Puritan  Revolution,  and  religion 
seemed  to  be  the  mother  of  divisions  and  con- 
fusions. It  was  identified  with  the  inquisi- 
tion. The  hands  of  religion  dripped  with  the 
blood  of  "  holy  wars."  There  was  no  crime 
of  which  the  Christian  religion  was  not 
guilty.  It  seemed  to  be  a  contrivance  of  the 
devil  to  poison  the  world.  It  lay  upon  the 
souls  of  men  like  a  foul  curse.  Nevertheless, 
out  of  it,  and  through  it,  and  by  reason  of  it, 
appeared  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth 
wherein  dwelt  righteousness.  A  new  free- 
dom of  thought  and  speech,  a  new  perspec- 
tive, a  new  sense  of  eternal  values,  and  new 
standards  of  Christian  conduct  appeared. 

In  the  midst  of  every  such  period  of  ap- 
parent defeat  and  failure,  even  the  faithful 
are  tempted  to  lose  heart.  They  look  at  one 
another  in  grief  and  perplexity,  asking.  Has 
the  church  collapsed?  They  are  of  the  mind 
of  Pope  Gregory  who,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  mission  which  converted  the  English  to 
Christianity,  described  the  church  as  "  an  old 

95 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

and  violently  shattered  ship,  admitting  the 
water  on  all  sides,  its  timbers  rotten,  shaken 
by  daily  storms,  and  fast  becoming  a  mere 
wreck."  Over  what  seas  then  undiscovered, 
through  how  many  successful  adventures, 
into  what  distant  ports,  has  that  wrecked 
ship  sailed ! 

Early  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Bishop 
Butler,  in  a  charge  to  the  clergy  of  the  dio- 
cese of  Durham,  spoke  of  the  "  general  decay 
of  religion  in  this  nation,  which  is  now  ob- 
served by  every  one,  and  has  been  for  some 
time  the  complaint  of  all  serious  persons." 
Addison  said  at  that  time  that  there  was 
"  less  appearance  of  religion  in  England  than 
in  any  neighbouring  state  or  nation."  This 
observation  was  confirmed  by  Montesquieu, 
who  said  that  he  had  imagined  France  to  be 
the  least  religious  country  on  the  face  of  the 
earth,  till  he  visited  England.  There,  he  said, 
the  subject  of  religion,  if  it  was  mentioned  at 
all,  "  excited  nothing  but  laughter." 

Early  in  the  nineteenth  century,  religion 
in  America  was  in  the  "  Great  Slump."  The 
building  of  churches  ceased,  and  those 
already  built  were  almost  empty.  Young 
men  in  all  the  colleges  professed  themselves 
96 


THE  EVERLASTING  VITALITY 

atheists.  Good  morals  were  fast  going  the 
way  of  good  religion.  The  church,  so  far  as 
its  stoutest  adherents  could  discern,  had  lost 
all  influence  over  contemporary  life. 

Fifty  years  ago  appeared  the  doctrines  of 
Darwin  and  Spencer,  which,  according  to 
their  enthusiastic  disciples,  were  to  produce 
an  "  eclipse  of  faith,"  in  which  not  the  church 
only  but  Christianity  itself  was  to  fall  into 
the  everlasting  dark,  and  perish.  We  were 
gravely  told  that  nothing  remained  for  the 
Christian  religion  but  decent  burial.  And  in 
spite  of  all  the  reassuring  experiences  of  the 
past,  a  great  many  people  believed  it. 

Nevertheless,  and  nevertheless !  After  the 
ebb  tide  there  is  a  flood ;  after  every  night,  no 
matter  how  dark,  the  sun  rises  in  the  morn- 
ing; after  the  bleakest  winter,  the  ice  and 
snow  melt,  the  streams  run  again,  and  the 
earth  is  green  and  fertile. 

Some  people  find  the  history  of  the  church 
depressing  reading,  but  the  chapters  which 
seem  the  most  depressing  are  in  truth,  when 
they  are  read  aright,  the  most  encouraging. 
They  prove  that  the  Christian  religion  pos- 
sesses an  invincible  vitality.  What  peril  has 
it  not  met,  what  might  of  adversaries,  what 

97 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

treachery  of  false  friends !  Into  what  wrong 
roads  has  it  not  been  misled,  down  what 
steep  precipices  has  it  not  fallen!  And  yet, 
after  all,  strengthened  rather  than  disabled 
by  hard  experience,  the  church  has  come  on, 
slowly  mastering  the  life  of  man. 

All  this  about  "  collapse  "  and  "  failure  " 
and  the  "  impending  crisis,"  and  the  "  church 
at  the  cross-roads,"  has  been  said  a  thousand 
times,  and  may  be  said  a  thousand  times 
again.  It  is  a  salutary  thing  to  say,  and  there 
is  always  need  of  it.  The  mission  of  the 
church  is  to  bring  human  nature  into  the  ful- 
filment of  the  best  ideals,  and  at  this  task  it 
is  forever  failing.  Of  course,  it  fails.  The 
only  road  to  this  attainment  is  beset  at  every 
turn  with  failure.  Everybody  who  tries  in 
his  own  life  to  transform  the  real  into  the 
ideal  knows  how  true  this  is. 

But  there  has  never  been  a  time  when  the 
church  was  so  clearly  aware  of  its  mission, 
and  so  steadily  engaged  in  it,  as  it  is  at  pres- 
ent ;  never  a  time  when  the  Bible  was  so  in- 
telligently read,  and  the  creeds  so  reasonably 
interpreted ;  never  a  time  when  men  were  so 
free  to  study  the  problems  of  life  and  to 
announce  the  results  of  their  investigations ; 
98 


THE  EVERLASTING  VITALITY 

never  a  time  when  ecclesiastical  interests 
were  so  subordinated  to  religious  interests, 
or  when  religious  interests  were  so  vitally  re- 
lated to  social  betterment;  never  a  time  so 
filled  with  helpful  Christian  activity. 

But  the  war!  It  defies  both  religion  and 
civilisation.  We  confess  that.  It  is  a  manner 
of  settling  differences  such  as  is  proper  not 
to  rational  beings,  but  to  brute  beasts.  The 
billions  of  dollars  which  we  propose  to  spend 
upon  it  would  otherwise  go,  in  great  part,  to 
the  upbuilding  of  our  useful  industries,  to  the 
extension  of  manufactures  and  railways,  to 
the  education  of  our  people,  to  the  increase 
of  our  prosperity  and  happiness.  The  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  young  men  whom  we 
propose  to  send  into  this  business  to  destroy 
property,  to  maim  and  kill  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  other  men,  and  eventually  to  be  shot 
to  pieces  themselves,  are  not  only  our  sons 
and  brothers,  each  of  them  the  centre  of  the 
affection  of  a  family,  but  they  are  the  hope 
of  the  nation.  These  are  they  who  should 
have  been  helpers  and  leaders  in  a  thousand 
arts,  poets,  preachers,  lawyers,  men  of  busi- 
ness, husbands  and  fathers.  Out  they  go 
with  their  young  hearts  filled  with  enthu- 

99 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

siasm  and  patriotism  and  self-sacrifice  and 
most  precious  virtues,  to  be  changed  into 
dead  bodies,  fit  only  to  be  buried  out  of  sight. 
War  is  the  most  horrible  fact  in  the  history 
of  man,  and  this  war  is  the  most  horrible  of 
wars. 

It  is  to  be  said,  however,  that  we  went  into 
it  with  great  reluctance.  We  waited  until  it 
seemed  to  some  that  we  were  patient  beyond 
the  bounds  of  patience.  We  endured  insult 
and  injury;  plots  were  laid  against  our 
peace;  our  people  were  ruthlessly  wrecked 
and  drowned  without  mercy  in  the  deep  sea ; 
we  were  daily  made  aware  of  conditions  of 
warfare,  at  first  incredible,  then  proved,  in 
the  sea  and  in  the  air  and  on  the  land, 
wherein  all  the  savagery  of  primitive  barba- 
rism was  revived  and  outdone,  and  all  the 
ideals  of  humanity  defied.  We  perceived  that 
this  warfare,  which  spared  neither  woman 
nor  child,  and  which  destroyed  everything, 
—  churches,  libraries,  mills,  schools,  peace- 
ful villages,  and  even  the  land  itself  —  was 
directed  against  those  conditions  of  democ- 
racy and  liberty  on  the  basis  of  which  this 
nation  was  founded.  It  became  plain  to  us 
that  the  fight  of  the  world  against  Germany 

100 


THE  EVERLASTING  VITALITY 

was  our  fight,  and  that  we  could  not  stay  out. 
We  had  hoped  against  hope  that  some  ap- 
peal to  reason  might  make  the  appeal  to 
arms  unnecessary.  The  situation  is  different 
from  the  foolish  enthusiasm  with  which  we 
hurried  into  the  war  with  Spain.  We  have 
had  no  such  savage  and  wicked  watchword 
as  *'  Remember  the  Maine."  In  the  face  of 
all  provocation,  we  have  entered  the  war 
slowly,  advisedly,  gravely,  without  hatred, 
for  the  securing  of  those  principles  of  liberty 
and  humanity  which  we  believe  to  be  essen- 
tial to  the  well-being  of  the  world,  as  a  Chris- 
tian people. 

The  Lord  of  our  life,  the  Prince  of  Peace, 
looked  through  such  a  situation  as  this  which 
now  confronts  us,  and  saw  the  light,  and 
victory,  and  the  kingdom  of  God,  on  the 
other  side.  "  Ye  shall  hear  of  wars  and  ru- 
mours of  wars,  nation  shall  rise  against 
nation  and  kingdom  against  kingdom;  and 
there  shall  be  signs  in  the  sun,  and  in  the 
moon,  and  in  the  stars;  and  upon  the  earth 
distress  of  nations,  with  perplexity;  the  sea 
and  the  waves  roaring;  men's  hearts  failing 
them  for  fear,  and  for  looking  after  those 
things  which  are  coming  on  the  earth.'*  In 

zoi 


RELIGION  IN  A  WORLD  AT  WAR 

this  dread  confusion,  our  ears  smitten  day 
by  day  with  the  fearful  sound  of  this  univer- 
sal storm,  we  hear  again  his  serene  voice, 
saying,  "  When  these  things  begin  to  come 
to  pass,  then  look  up  and  lift  up  your  heads, 
for  your  redemption  draweth  nigh.  When 
ye  see  these  things  come  to  pass,  know  ye 
that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  nigh  at  hand." 

It  is  the  Lord's  "  Nevertheless."  The 
whole  world  is  at  war.  The  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  is  torn  into  scraps  of  paper,  as  Moses 
in  the  old  time  flung  down  the  tables  of  the 
law,  and  broke  them  into  a  thousand  pieces. 
But  the  commandments  survived,  and  the 
beatitudes  shall  likewise  survive.  What 
shall  be  wrought  at  last  out  of  the  furnace  of 
this  fire,  nobody  knows :  what  purification  of 
the  church,  what  defeat  of  the  devil,  what 
uplifting  of  the  ideals  of  the  race,  what  mani- 
festation of  the  kingdom  of  God,  nobody 
knows.  But  this  we  know,  that  the  word  of 
Jesus  Christ  shall  be  fulfilled  again,  as  in  a 
thousand  wars  of  old,  and  out  of  this  evil 
shall  come  good.  Though  victory  to-day  and 
to-morrow  attend  the  armies  of  the  adver- 
sary, and  the  thrones  of  the  wicked  seem  as 
solid  as  the  everlasting  hills,  **  Nevertheless 

102 


THE  EVERLASTING  VITALITY 

we,  according  to  his  promise,  look  for  new 
heavens  and  a  new  earth,  wherein  dwelleth 
righteousness."  We  may  wait  long,  but  we 
shall  not  be  disappointed. 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


'HE   following   pages   contain   advertisements   of 
Macmillan  books  by  the  same  author. 


Henry  Codman  Potter 

SEVENTH  BISHOP  OF   NEW  YORK 

By  GEORGE  HODGES 

Illustrated;  cloth,  8vo,  $3.50 

"He  has  performed  a  labor  of  love  with  extraordinarily  painstaking  devotion 
and  comprehensiveness.  The  book  is  one  worthy  of  the  attention,  not  only  of  the 
Episcopal  fellowship,  but  of  the  people  of  the  city  of  New  York,  to  whose  ad- 
vancement in  all  that  is  good  Henry  Codman  Potter  devoted  the  best  years  of  a 
tremendously  useful  life."  —  New  York  Evening  Post. 

"An  admirable  portrait  of  a  great  churchman  who  figured  prominently  in 
the  history  of  the  nation  and  whose  life  and  labors  are  of  interest  to  all  thinking 
people."  —  San  Francisco  Bulletin. 

"His  biography  makes  excellent  good  reading  throughout  its  381  pages.  .  .  . 
In  this,  as  in  his  other  works,  Dean  Hodges  is  scholarly,  clear  and  direct.  His 
personality  is  obtruded  just  enough  to  reveal  sympathy  with  his  subject  and 
appreciation  for  dramatic  and  picturesque  episodes."^ —  Chicago  Evening  Post. 

"Dean  Hodges'  biography  is  a  delightful  piece  of  work  which  will  be  enjoyed 
by  those  outside  his  own  communion  as  well  as  by  churchmen."  —  New  York 
Herald. 

"Dean  Hodges'  biography  is  a  fine  monument  to  a  churchman  of  whom  his 
city  and  country  are  justly  proud."  —  Nation, 

"His  work  is  interesting  not  only  as  the  biography  of  one  of  the  foremost  men 
of  our  day,  but  as  a  valuable  document  in  the  history  of  the  Episcopal  Church." 
—  Boston  Daily  Advertiser. 

"Here  is  a  biography  which  with  exceptional  completeness  fills  the  place  of 
autobiography.  The  subject  of  it  could  not  himself  have  been  more  sympathetic 
toward  his  work  as  churchman  and  citizen.  ...  He  writes  of  his  subject  with 
fine  blending  of  moderation  and  earnestness,  a  just  balancing  of  judicial  restraint 
and  aggressive  zeal.  ...  A  volume  which  is  interesting  to  read  as  a  narrative 
and  which  is  of  inestimable  value  for  information  and  for  reference."  —  New 
York  Tribune. 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


OTHER  BOOKS  BY  DEAN  HODGES 

The  Episcopal  Church :  Its  Faith  and  Order 

Cloth,  i2mo,  $1.00 

This  present  volume  is  a  concise  statement  of  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of 
the  Episcopal  Church.  .„,-,•      , 

It  is  intended  for  three  groups  —  the  younger  clergymen  who  will  find  m  the 
analyses  prefaced  to  the  chapters  material  that  will  be  valuable  in  their  own 
teaching,  members  of  confirmation  classes  who  will  be  helped  by  the  summaries 
which  it  contains,  and  persons  who  are  desirous  of  knowing  the  doctrine  and 
discipline  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  The  volume  embodies  the  results  of  twenty 
years'  experience  in  the  instruction  of  students  in  the  Episcopal  Theological 
School.  In  the  midst  of  many  natural  differences  of  emphasis  and  opinion  there 
are  indicated  in  this  work  those  positions  in  which  most  members  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  are  substantially  agreed. 

"The  author  writes  for  humanity,  and  no  better  book  for  religious  study,  for 
clergy,  laity,  and  for  the  younger  members  of  churches  has  appeared  in  some 
time."  —  Review  oj  Reviews. 

"Contains  material  to  strengthen  faith  and  create  respect."  —  Boston  Herald. 

A  Classbook  of  Old  Testament  History 

Cloth,  J 2  mo,  $1.00 

This  volume,  with  a  simplicity  of  style  that  charms  the  reader,  brings  the 
results  of  the  best  scholarship  of  the  day,  without  any  reference  to  the  processes, 
to  the  general  reader.  Old  Testament  History  is  not  found  in  the  Bible  as  a 
continuous  narrative.  As  it  stands,  it  is  in  two  editions.  "One  edition  includes 
the  books  from  Genesis  to  Second  Kings.  The  other  edition  includes  the  books 
from  First  Chronicles  to  Nehemiah."  To  get  the  entire  history  it  is  necessary 
to  bring  these  two  series  of  books  together.  Again,  there  are  books  of  poetry, 
and  especially  books  of  prophecy,  in  the  Old  Testament,  which  were  written  in 
the  midst  of  the  events  which  historians  narrate,  and  although  these  books  bring 
new  light  to  the  historical  events,  they  are  placed  by  themselves.  Historical 
criticism  has  done  an  enormous  amount  of  keen  critical  work  in  analyzing  and 
constructing  the  materials  to  present  to  the  reader  the  actual  history  of  the 
Hebrews. 

Everyman's  Religion  cioth,  i2mo,  $1.50 

Macmillan  Standard  Library  Edition,  50  cents 

Underlying  the  many  sects  of  the  Christian  religion  there  are  certain  funda- 
mental facts  which  are  sometimes  lost  sight  of  in  the  devotion  to  a  particular 
creed.  The  purpose  of  Dean  Hodges'  book  is  to  present  these  essential  elements 
of  Christian  faith  and  life  in  a  manner  simple,  unconventional  and  appealing  t:^ 
a  man's  common  sense.  The  conclusions  at  which  the  author  arrives  are  largeiy 
orthodox,  but  the  reasoning  makes  no  use  of  the  argument  from  authority. 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

Publishera  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


NEW  EDITIONS  OF  DEAN  HODGES' S  BOOKS 

Christianity  between  Sundays  $1.25 

The  Heresy  of  Cain  $1.23 

The  Battles  of  Peace  $1.23 

The  Human  Nature  of  the  Saints  $i.2s 
The  Year  of  Grace                  Two  volumes,  each  $1.25 

The  Path  of  Life  $1.25 

The  Cross  and  Passion  $1.25 

Faith  and  Social  Service  $1.25 

Uniformly  hound,  each  i2mo 

Dean  George  Hodges  is  one  of  those  gifted  writers  who  makes  of  religion  a 
very  practical  thing.  He  neither  tires  the  reader  with  discussions  of  dogmas  nor 
of  creeds,  but  as  a  critic  once  put  it,  "gets  down  to  business  in  a  businesslike 
fashion."  His  books  which  have  previously  been  published  and  are  known  to 
many  men  and  women  are  reissued  now  in  new  editions  bound  uniformly  in  blue 
cloth.  Individually  and  collectively  they  demonstrate  once  more  the  truth  of 
the  Christian  Register^ s  commtnt  that  "Dr.  Hodges  is  an  inspired  apostle  of 
the  new  philanthropy."  The  intimate  talks  in  the  volumes  are  on  themes  of  vital 
interest  to  every  one  living  in  this  twentieth  century.  They  contain  possibilities 
of  application  so  pointed  and  evident  that  "they  convey  their  own  instruction 
and  their  own  impulse,"  to  quote  further  from  the  Christian  Register's  re- 
marks on  one  of  the  author's  works,  which  may  in  absolute  truth  be  applied  to 
them  all. 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


Moral  Training  in  the 
School  and  Home 

By  E.  HERSHEY  SNEATH  and  GEORGE  HODGES 

80  cents 

"This  study  should  be  read  not  only  by  teachers  but  by  parents  as  well." 
■ —  San  Francisco  Chronicle. 

"The  whole  discussion  is  strong,  clear,  wholesome  and  invigorating."  — 
Education,  Boston. 

"The  book  is  consistently  practical  and  offers  genuine  help  to  mothers  and 
teachers." —  Christian  Register. 

"Many  a  mother,  we  are  sure,  would  be  grateful  for  such  extremely  judicious 
guidance."  —  Pacific  Churchman. 

"Such  themes  as  are  treated  by  these  judicious  authors,  will  be  found  of 
superlative  value  in  this  form  of  training.  They  deal  with  life  in  its  many 
aspects  —  bodily,  intellectual,  social,  economic,  political,  and  aesthetic,  and  what 
is  suggested  in  each  chapter  is  worthy  of  the  highest  regard,  when  it  comes  from 
authors  of  such  strength  of  character  and  saneness  of  thought."  —  Journal  oj 
Education. 

"It  would  be  hard  to  find  a  better  school  reader  or  one  more  free  from  triviali- 
ties and  cant."  —  The  San  Francisco  Argonaut. 

"Of  considerable  value  to  teachers  and  parents  will  be  the  carefully  selected 
lists  which  the  book  contains  of  stories  designed  to  illustrate  the  several  kinds  of 
virtues.  These  tales  are  of  excellent  quality  and  not  above  average  juvenile 
tastes."  —  North  American  Review. 

"The  wide  experience  of  both  the  authors  abundantly  qualifies  them  to 
produce  a  really  helpful  book  along  the  lines  indicated."  —  Home  and  School. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


The  Golden  Rule  Series 

By  E.  HERSHEY  SNEATH,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

Yale  University 

GEORGE  HODGES,  D.D.,  D.C.L. 

Episcopal  Theological  School,  Cambridge,  and 

EDWARD  LAWRENCE  STEVENS,  Ph.D.,  L.H.D. 
Late  Associate  Superintendent  of  Schools,  New  York  City 


The  Golden  Ladder  Book 
The  Golden  Path  Book 
The  Golden  Door  Book 
The  Golden  Key  Book 
The  Golden  Word  Book 
The  Golden  Deed  Book 


Third  Grade 

$0.48 

Fourth  Grade 

$0.52 

Fifth  Grade 

$0.60 

Sixth  Grade 

$0.60 

Seventh  Grade 

$0.60 

Eighth  Grade 

$0.60 

"The  Golden  Rule  Series"  is  a  treasury  of  literary  selections  from  modern 
classics.  The  purpose  of  the  series  is  to  furnish  literary  material  adapted  to  the 
needs  of  children  that  can  be  used  as  a  basis  for  moral  mstruction.  It  aims  to 
supplement  "The  King's  Highway  Series"  on  the  moral  side. 

The  method  of  instruction  employed  in  "The  Golden  Rule  Series"  is  the  in- 
direct method,  and  is  similar  to  the  method  employed  in  "The  King's  Highway 
Series."  In  the  prefaces  to',  the  volumes  of  "The  Golden  Rule  Series,"  apart 
from  the  text,  are  to  be  found  suggestions  and  directions  for  the  successful  teach- 
ing of  the  moral  lessons  involved  in  the  literary  selections. 

"The  Golden  Rule  Series  "  is  adapted  to  serve  as  collateral  reading  in  connec- 
tion with  "The  King's  Highway  Series."  The  Golden  Rule  Readers  are  source 
books  that  can  be  used  independently  or  to  supplement  the  lessons  in  "The 
King's  Highway  Series." 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Publisheri  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


The  King's  Highway  Series 

By  E.   HERSHEY  SNEATH,   Ph.D.,   LL.D. 

Professor  of  the  Philosophy  of  Religion  and  ReUgious  Education, 

Yale  University 

GEORGE   HODGES,   D.D.,  LL.D. 
Dean  of  Episcopal  Theological  School,  Cambridge,  and 

HENRY  HALLAM  TWEEDY,   M.A. 

Professor  of  Practical  Theology,  Yale  University 

"The  King's  Highway  Series"  embodies  a  graded  system  of  moral  and  reli- 
gious instruction  for  the  home  and  school.  The  subject-matter  of  each  book  is 
carefully  adapted  to  the  needs  of  children  of  the  age  for  which  it  is  designed  (in 
the  light  of  recent  child  psychology  —  especially  the  psychology  of  the  moral 
and  religious  unfolding  of  the  child  —  and  also  with  special  reference  to  modern 
pedagogical  science)  —  being  graded  in  vocabulary,  interest,  form,  and  moral 
and  spiritual  content.  The  method  of  instruction  is  the  indirect  method  of  story, 
biography,  and  history  —  teaching  largely  by  example.  A  modicum  of  precept, 
in  the  form  of  wise  sayings,  scripture  selections,  following  each  lesson,  and  usually 
summing  up  its  moral  and  spiritual  content,  is  also  used. 

The  Series  fully  covers  the  essential  Bible  message,  embodied  in  no  less  than 
six  hundred  Bible  stories  and  selections  in  the  form  of  verses,  proverbs,  psalms, 
parables,  and  the  great  Scriptural  classics  —  such  as  the  Ten  Commandments, 
The  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Beatitudes,  and  other  selections  from  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  Paul's  great  chapter  on  Love,  and  similar  extracts  from  the  Epistles. 
The  Series  contains  also  a  Life  of  Christ  by  Dean  Hodges  and  a  Life  of  Paul  by 
Professor  Tweedy. 

The  other  material  is  selected  from  the  best  literary  sources,  the  stories, 
biographies,  and  poems  being  especially  interesting  and  wholesome.  There  are 
also  a  number  of  the  great  hymns  and  prayers  of  the  ages.  Many  of  the  selec- 
tions are  ilJustrated  with  pictures  from  the  best  art. 

Books  of  the  Series  Now  Ready 

The  Way  of  the  Gate  The  Way  of  the  Hills 

$o.6s  Illustrated,  ismo,  $0.55 

The  Way  of  the  Green  Pastures      The  Way  of  the  Rivers 

$0.65  Illustrated,  i2mo,  $0.55 

The  Way  of  the  Stars  The  Way  of  the  Mountains 

Illustrated,  i2mo,  $0.65  Illustrated,  i2mo,  $0.65 

The  Way  of  the  King's  Gardens      The  Way  of  the  King's  Palace 
Illustrated,  i2mo,  $0.75  Illustrated,  i2mo,  $0.75 


THE   MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


Princeton  Theological  Semina^  Libraries 


1    1012  01218  8985 


